How much 'negative' space is too much?

[Joan Breckwoldt]

I am wondering about the negative space around the subject in a portrait. How much space is too much? I understand it's up to the individual artist, and even what the painting is trying to convey. But in a traditional 3/4 portrait, how much is too much? I've read about putting the head 2" from the top of the canvas. Though I just spent some time with an Andrew Wyeth book and in one of his portraits, the head and shoulders filled the bottom half of the canvas and the top half was negative space. Very interesting.

I suppose anything goes, but I would love to hear any input on this. If we're talking about a painted head that is about 6 to 6 1/2" for a child, does this fit better on a 16"x20" or a 20"x24" canvas? Would a larger canvas give it too much negative space, assuming the same 6 1/2" head? I'm going to post a photo of what I'm going to paint, it's not the best photo, it's blurry, but you get the idea. And the cat (!) will take some work to get right, but this is the POSE I'm talking about.

thank you all,

Joan