Art print guide for walls with character

Welcome to my blog, I am a professional cartoonist, illustrator, artist and writer. My site here is intended to promote a range of works that I think will look good on the wall. Included on my site is not just my own work, but some works by other artists whose work I love and hope to bring to a wider audience. I hope you enjoy your tour of my site and welcome any feedback. Prints on paper are fulfilled by The Print Space, one of the UK's premier fine art print companies, and there is also the option of buying some images printed onto canvas; these are fulfilled by Printumo. All prints are available worldwide.

A good print does more than fill an empty patch of wall. It changes the feel of a room, gives the eye somewhere to rest, and can make even a very ordinary corner feel considered. The best choice is rarely the one that matches every cushion or follows the latest interiors fashion. It is usually the image you keep looking at.

An art print guide for choosing with your eye

When choosing wall art, start with the image rather than the space. That may sound backwards, but it is often the safest way to avoid buying something that is merely decorative. A picture with real atmosphere will find its place, whether it ends up above a sideboard, in a hall, beside a desk or on a larger, clearer wall.

Look for something with a strong composition. A dark shed against a pale sky, the hard geometry of corrugated iron, a distant tree line or an enormous fading advertising sign can all hold a room because the shapes are clear. You do not need formal art knowledge to recognise this. If the image still works when you stand back, and it has enough in it to reward a second look, it is doing its job.

Colour matters, of course, but it need not match perfectly. A muted landscape can bring calm to a busy room; a colour drawing can give a neutral room a needed jolt. Black and white work is particularly useful where there are already plenty of colours and objects competing for attention. It brings shape, texture and tone without adding visual noise.

Size is part of the picture

A small print can be excellent, but it needs the right setting. Small works often look particularly good in pairs or groups, on shelves, in a narrow passage or as part of a wall of different images. One undersized print floating alone on a large wall can look apologetic, even when the image itself is excellent.

For a single statement piece, give the work room to breathe. Measure the area before ordering, then mark the likely size on the wall with low-tack tape or sheets of paper. It is a simple test, but it makes scale much easier to judge. If you are torn between two sizes, the larger one is often more convincing, provided the wall has the space.

A large canvas can suit a room where you want the art to feel direct and physical. Paper prints, framed well, can feel a little more precise and intimate. Neither is automatically better. It depends on the image, the room and whether you want a clean framed edge or the softer, more immediate presence of canvas.

The appeal of sheds, metalwork and working places

There is a particular beauty in old industrial buildings that is easy to miss when you are passing them in bad weather. Leaning sheds, patched roofs, corrugated iron, rusted gates and bits of industrial metalwork have a history written into their surfaces. They are practical objects first, which is partly why they can be so visually satisfying.

Corrugated iron catches light in unexpected ways. It can be silvery, blue-grey, almost black, or strangely warm when rust and age take hold. The repeated ridges give an image rhythm, while an odd door, hand-painted sign or improvised repair stops it becoming too tidy. A shed can have more character than a grand building because it has been altered, used and lived with.

Much of my own work is inspired by the Gloucestershire countryside, as well as old industrial buildings and the sites around the River Severn. These are not postcard views. They are places where fields, weather, machinery, water and working structures meet. I photograph much of the subject matter when I can, then paint it when the weather turns less friendly. That change of pace is useful: photography catches the immediate arrangement of light and shape, while painting allows an image to be pushed, simplified or made more dramatic.

The newer charcoal drawing images take another route again. Charcoal is direct, slightly unforgiving and very good at describing the weight of a building or the texture of a battered surface. It leaves room for marks that are rougher and more expressive than a polished photograph. If you like work with a bit of grit and evidence of the hand, charcoal is worth considering.

Los Angeles signs: photographs with a loud visual voice

At the other end of the scale are the large advertising signs found around Los Angeles. These are not quiet rural subjects, and that is exactly their appeal. A huge sign against a wide sky has a graphic confidence that works brilliantly on a wall. There is often a pleasing tension between the bold promise of advertising and the faded, sun-bleached reality of the structure itself.

The Los Angeles images are available as photographic prints as well as canvas prints. On paper, the detail of the sign, its supports and the surrounding street scene can feel crisp and observational. On canvas, the scale and colour can become more like a piece of wall painting. If the image is going into a living room, studio or larger hallway, canvas can be a very good fit. For a study, gallery wall or a space where you enjoy looking closely, a framed paper print may be the better choice.

Do not be put off by the fact that a subject is urban if your home is not. Often, a city photograph and a rural landscape work well together because both are about structure, weather, memory and place. What matters is whether the images have enough visual strength to hold their own without shouting over one another.

Print quality, framing and living with the work

Fine art giclée printing is about getting the image onto paper with depth, accurate colour and good tonal range. It is especially valuable for drawings, subtle skies, photographs and paintings where flat reproduction would lose the point. Prints on paper are produced by The Print Space, while selected canvas prints are fulfilled by Printumo. Both choices are made to give the work a proper finish rather than treating it as disposable décor.

A simple frame is usually enough. Natural wood can suit rural scenes and charcoal drawings; black often works well with graphic urban photography and bold line work; a pale frame can keep a small room feeling open. Mounting is a matter of taste. A generous white mount gives a paper print breathing room and can make a smaller image feel more substantial. A full-bleed frame can feel punchier, particularly with photographs.

The works are not limited editions. That means you can choose an image because you genuinely want to live with it, not because you are being rushed by an artificial scarcity clock. The value is in the picture, the production and the pleasure it gives you each time you walk past it.

There are also new photographs on the site, along with the new charcoal drawing work and exciting new pieces by Steve Parker. I have included guest artists because I like their work and think it deserves a wider audience, not because a catalogue needs filling. That personal selection is the point.

Choose the print that keeps returning to your mind after you have looked through everything else. Give it a decent frame or the right stretch of wall, and let it become part of the everyday view rather than something you only notice when guests arrive.