Sit-down or stand-up to paint?
 

I am a sit-down painter and cannot seem to break this long-time habit (even though it might improve my work).

It started long ago in art school. I have always had crummy vision (not glassed correctable) and have to be on top of something to see it. We drew from life 3 hours per day, 5 days per week - for three solid years.

Because I am tall, nobody behind me could see unless I sat down. I got used to this and just never seemed to be able to stand up and draw or paint.

How do others on this Forum work?

Lucky you! You seem to have had a real solid foundation in your art education. Mostly what I learned to do in art school was scrap metal welding and making abstract shapes with light. Fat lot of good that did me!

On the question of standing up or sitting down: I mostly stand. It lets me back up more often. I only sit down if I'm doing detail work for several hours. Even then I get up often and stand across the room to see where I'm going astray.

I stand. I need more mobility than I'd have if I tried to sit. When I did plein air I sometimes sat as I painted, but I don't recall why I did that.

Vision issues contribute to this preference; I can see the easel without glasses but only with one eye; for true three-dimensional vision I have to use my glasses, and for that I have to back off. My glasses are Varilux but the near prescription is at the bottom, of course, so I'd have to tilt my head to see close up. An artist on a painter's list I belong to actually had a special pair of glasses made up which offered near vision closer to the center of the lens for use while painting.

Today I painted from about 11 to about 6 and I'm tired, despite having a rubber mat (nicely decorated, to be sure) on which to stand.

Bad Back, Bad Eyes
 

Sitting is not ideal but sometimes I am forced to sit more than I really want.

My favorite thing in a life class is to start far off from the model with the glasses off. Squinting is not needed and as the painting develops I start pulling up closer. When I'm up close enough to the model and getting finished with the study the glasses are put on and then I can get the details in. Sometimes I get in a situation where I can't pull this trick but when I can get away with it I will.

Back to the standing thing. I really do prefer standing but I can only stay in one position for so long. Walking and moving is the best thing for the beat up back. I haven't figured out how to walk and paint at the same time.

I mostly sit to paint but get up often to check on progress. I've got Varilux glasses (not very strong, according to the optometrist) which magnify and distort everything :( Consequently I fuss over some small details and then when I back off without glasses, I can't see them anyway and they were unimportant. I like the idea of the magnified bit in the middle. I suffer from a permanent crick in my neck. I finish up moving the painting around on the easel so the area I am working on is at about waist level where I can see it properly. I bought contacts which you wear close sight in non dominant eye and distance in dominant eye but I've been too chicken to try them. (can't stand poking my fingers in my eyes) I also can never figure out if I should wear glasses or not and which bit to look through when I go to life drawing. The model is below eye level (magnified) the paper is above eye level (distance) :) I feel like Noddy!!! :D

Margaret, I have monovision contacts and love them, but my eyes seem to be becoming increasingly sensitive to airborne allergens and it makes it hard for me to wear them much anymore. While they worked they were a wonderful solution for me; I could paint quite well with them. You should definitely try 'em. You get used to putting things in your eye sooner than you'd think.

This is an issue that will give me trouble. When I go to life drawing sessions, I've tried to stand for the 20 minute poses, but started to poop out, and had to keep standing because everything looks different from a sitting position. I have an artificial leg on one side, and an artificial hip on the other, so long-term standing isn't easy.

When I begin to paint, I'll probably get some kind of stool that sits me at my standing height (I'm very short, so that'll be easy). That way, I can stand when I need to, without messing up my vantage point.

If I had my choice, I'd stand more. The Whitaker Waltz seems like an excellent tool for capturing realism. Can't do that sitting down.

I have a chair/stool that I sit on at close to my standing height. This chair is on wheels and I do push back a couple of feet sometimes.

Bill Whitaker's Waltz (see subject specific demo section) is ideal...except my focus range is narrow so it doesn't work for me. Rats. I could use the exercise.

I try to sit, but I can't. Before I know it I'm standing again. I have a stool which is nearly at standing height, as most things are, because I'm short. This is the first thing I trip over when I stand up and walk around. I trip over it at least once a day, but I leave it there so I'll try to sit, because man, this is hard work!

Does everyone have one muscular shoulder and one wimpy shoulder too? Luckily I have a 25 pound baby I carry on my left hip, to balance it all out.

I read somewhere that professions where you keep your arms elevated (like conductors) have lower risk of heart disease too.

Well...?
 

I saw a picture once in a book of a popular artist in the 1950's (can't remember who) and he had an easel specially made to fit his easy chair. He smoked a pipe and sat back and painted all his work there in that chair.

Conscience might not let me make a living like that (grin). However, I stand when doing oils, but sit while doing charcoal or pastel. That might stem from the classroom doing some drafting projects.

Sit or stand, it's the most pleasurable work I've ever done.

For years, and for no good reason, I have painted sitting down. Recent conversations with Linda B. have caused me to do some painting standing up. It is a much different experience for me. I find that I even hold my brushes differently, more loosely than before. And the back and forth seems to happen much more frequently which can only be a good thing. I can see advantages to standing up that I never would have considered.

This is a Vermeer which is thought to be a portrait of himself at work.

Velazquez
 

Did Velazquez do a lot of standing? Looks like a distracting place to work: Kids, dwarfs, dogs running around, and the Royal family and court watching.

How western artist Charlie Russell did it:

And how a Chinese painter atop the Great Wall worked. This just makes my knees hurt to watch it. I'd have to crawl back home at day's end.

Bouguereau
 

I'm like Bouguereau, can't make up my mind what I want to do!

Sitting Down

This one hasn't been discussed yet. :o

Last One!

And, of course, this one.

I don't think I ever noticed before, he was taking twenty years off, the little cheat!

Couldn't resist this subject!

I paint sitting down. I do get up and walk around and view my work from a distance at intervals. I don't seem to have as much control over the paint brush standing up. I'm un-coordianted to say the least. For some reason, if I stand in one place too long, I get light headed. I can walk, or sit, but standing really gets to me. Since my eyesight is so bad, I wear a contact lens, but have to wear reading glasses to see up close.

This brings me to another concern I've been thinking about. Whenever I consider taking a workshop, my greatest fear is trying to paint standing up with the other students. Not, how my work will be viewed by others, or if I will fit in, but how will I look if I sit when everyone else is standing? Or what if I get one of those teachers that insist I must stand if I am to paint properly and I can't do it? Can't you just see it? I pass out and all the artists and their easels go down like dominos! Eeeeek!

Since I HAD to spend 30 years painting standing up (actually wings would have been more useful), I now paint sitting down whenever it's practical.

There are some times when standing is more helpful, so I do both (not on the same painting), depending.

Administrator's Note: Carl was a billboard painter.

When standing, you will use the strength of whole body.

Chinese painters, are sometimes in a crawling pose, paper is on the floor. Still more comfortable than Michaelangelo. Or you can stand on the shoulder of me, no, no, not me but a giant.

Standing, use the full strength,
Standing too long will hurt,
Sitting and standing, yin and yang,
Balance well, you will be standout and stay young!

I try not to sit.

I heard Nelson Shanks say one time to "paint from the balls of your feet." Made sense to me.

Also let's not forget the terrific advice from the inimitable Muhammed Ali: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

Sounds like painting.

Hi all,

I have to use them all. Sit, stand, lean, tall stool, short chair, lay down, sit on exercise ball for awhile, walk around the table add some paint, do it again. Back pain is a bummer. Makes workshops or school almost impossible. But, I'm doing it, not complaining, and thank God everyday for the opportunity to do it again.

Jean

Cut to the chase
 

:thumbsup: Jean: I like your attitude - it isn't so much how you paint, you simply paint any way you can. And that is really the heart of the matter. Thanks.

Sit and Stand
 

I actually stand and sit equally. I do all my rough stuff standing and a little detail. Most of my detail is done sitting unless it is very high on the canvas and my painting is as low as it will go.

Kent