How to buy illustration prints that suit your space

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 are fulfilled by The Print Space for prints on paper, they are 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 illustration print can make a room feel more like yours very quickly. It may be a quiet charcoal drawing of a shed, a bright piece of graphic colour, a landscape with a familiar weather-beaten mood, or a photograph of a huge Los Angeles advertising sign. The subject matters, certainly, but so does the feeling it gives the wall around it.

When people ask how to buy illustration prints, they are often really asking a simpler question: how do I choose something I will still enjoy looking at next year? There is no need to become an art expert. You just need to look carefully, buy work with a bit of conviction, and give some thought to where it is going to live.

Start with the picture, not the empty space

It is tempting to begin with measurements, frame colour and what might match the sofa. Those things have their place, but first choose an image that catches you. A print should have enough visual life to reward repeated looking. That could mean strong line, an unusual point of view, a pleasing arrangement of shapes, or simply a subject that brings back a memory.

My own work often begins outdoors, particularly in the Gloucestershire countryside and around sites on the River Severn. I am drawn to rural scenes, sheds, old industrial buildings, corrugated iron and battered industrial metalwork. These are not always conventionally pretty subjects, but they have texture, rhythm and history. A rusty roof, patched timber wall or a collection of pipes can make a remarkably good image when the light and composition are right.

That is worth remembering when you are choosing art for a home. Do not dismiss an image because the subject sounds ordinary. A shed can be as compelling as a grand landscape, and an old sign can hold a room together just as well as a carefully arranged abstract print.

How to buy illustration prints in the right size

Size changes everything. A small print can be brilliant close up, particularly in a hallway, beside a desk or as part of a group. Put that same image alone above a large sofa, however, and it may disappear. Conversely, a large print gives an image room to breathe and can become the main event in a space.

Before ordering, make a rough paper template in the size you are considering and put it on the wall with low-tack tape. It is a simple trick, but it reveals whether you are being too cautious. Most people buy smaller than they need to at first.

There is no fixed rule, because a compact room may suit a single modest piece while a large blank wall may need one substantial image or a considered arrangement. Think about viewing distance too. Detailed drawings benefit from being seen close by, while bolder graphic work, big skies and photographs with strong shapes can work from across a room.

If you are building a group, look for a connection rather than trying to make every image identical. You might pair a black and white drawing with a muted landscape, or gather different photographs that share the same sense of weather, structure or colour. The best collections have a little variation in them.

Paper or canvas depends on the image and room

Fine art paper prints have a directness that suits illustration, drawing and photography particularly well. You can see the marks, grain and detail in a way that feels close to the original image. Framing also lets you make the piece your own, whether you prefer a clean white border, a slim black frame or something warmer in natural wood.

Canvas has a different presence. It is often a good choice for a larger, more graphic image, where the print can sit confidently on a broad wall without the added formality of a frame. Canvas can also be useful in rooms where you want art to feel relaxed and immediate.

Neither is automatically better. A finely detailed charcoal drawing may call for paper, while a photograph of a giant painted sign in Los Angeles can look excellent on canvas, especially at a generous scale. Those Los Angeles images are full of faded lettering, bold colour and the strange theatre of roadside advertising. They are available as photographic prints as well as canvas prints, so the decision can come down to the finish you prefer.

Look at colour, but do not become ruled by it

A print does not have to match every colour in the room. In fact, work that matches too neatly can sometimes look more like decoration than something chosen with real feeling. A picture can introduce a fresh colour, sharpen a neutral room, or provide a contrast to all the soft furnishings around it.

What does help is noticing the overall temperature of an image. Warm ochres, faded reds and rusty browns often sit well with wood, brick and older furniture. Cooler greys, blues and deep greens can give a calmer feel. Black and white work is wonderfully flexible, but it still has character: hard black line feels very different from soft charcoal or a silvery photographic grey.

Try to imagine the print in the room at different times of day. A bright digital colour piece may be exactly what a darker north-facing wall needs. A subdued rural image might be more suitable where there is already plenty going on. There is no law against a bold choice, though. The image you keep coming back to is often the right one.

Buy from people whose eye you trust

One of the pleasures of buying prints directly from artists and independent shops is that somebody has made a decision about what belongs there. It is not an endless catalogue of vaguely similar images. You can get a sense of the work, the interests behind it and the standards of production.

That matters if you are buying a first piece as much as if you already have walls full of art. You may be drawn to a particular illustrator's line, a photographer's eye for a street corner, or an artist who notices the overlooked details of farm buildings and industrial sites. Those preferences become a thread through your home over time.

At Paul Davies Prints, the selection includes my own work alongside artists whose work I genuinely admire. More work is on the way too, including pieces by Steve Parker and a new collection of my own images of sheds. A good print shop should feel alive in this way, with familiar work to return to and new things worth seeing.

Give print quality the attention it deserves

An excellent image deserves an excellent print. Fine art printing affects the depth of the blacks, the subtlety of colour, the visibility of drawing marks and the overall sense that an image has been properly made rather than quickly reproduced.

It is sensible to check what you are buying, particularly whether the work is printed on fine art paper or canvas, the available sizes and whether it will need framing. The practical detail is part of buying with confidence, not an obstacle to the enjoyable bit.

Once it arrives, do not leave it rolled up or leaning in a corner for months. Get it framed or hung, then live with it. The right print tends to settle into a room while continuing to offer something new: a line you had not noticed, a particular patch of sky, the odd beauty of corrugated iron, or a sign that seems to have travelled in from another city. Buy the picture you want to keep looking at, and the wall will take care of the rest.