[Thujon]

Hi CgPad Members

When everybody starts a new project / picture, one has to think of its size...

How big will it be..

When I start a digital piece and hit ctrl + n, I usually pick the preset button and chose international paper size A4 ( See attachment )... unfortunately I end up with really big ( I mean BIG like 30MB ) images....
Thats annoying because of several things, like the system getting slower thus PS too, and system crashes aso.

So my question is:

What image size, settings are good to use?

Thanks for any answers!!!!! U guys are so great!

[bsfea]

Hi Thujon,

to start off a picture the A4 preset with 2480x3508px is definitely too big, especially on a machine that is not that fast.

Personally I start at an resolution around 1600x1200 or 1240x1048, depending on the machine I'm working on. On my desktop I probably go for a slightly bigger one, for example the film&video cineon half resolution, or a bit more. Like I said it depends on the machine.
But the concrete resolution to choose also depends much on the subject you want to paint. If you want to sketch, just go for a really small size that you're able to paint without laggy brush strokes. If you are happy with the sketch and you want to work it out, just resize it and start the detailing(probably a much higher resolution, around 3000x or 4000x depending on the grade of detail and the purpose of the image).
The subject also influences the ratio to choose. 4:3 is always a good ratio to start with, after putting down the some shapes you can take the crop tool and frame the image as you like.
For landscapes a really like to start with a wide-screen ratio like 16:9 (I often use 2048x1152 on my desktop).

Hope that helps
cheers

[Thujon]

Thanks a lot!

[zAnta]

Originally Posted by bsfea

just resize it and start the detailing

Never thought of this possibillity before. I always started with like really huge canvas size in case I want to print the picture in high quality. Maybe I'm little to rooted in traditional painting.