Shark Wall Art

Shark Wall Art

Size is the whole argument with this subject. A shark is a big animal and the image has to imply that; printed small, a great white becomes a fish in a blue rectangle and loses everything that made you want it. Buy at the largest size the wall will honestly take, and if the only available spot is narrow, choose a tight crop — a head, a jaw, a fin cutting the surface — rather than shrinking a whole animal into a small frame.

Water tone sets the mood more than the shark does. Deep blue-black open water is dramatic and needs the same care with reflections that any dark image does. Bright turquoise shallows, with sunlight banding down through the surface, read as summery and holiday-ish and belong in a different room entirely. Neither is wrong, but they are not interchangeable.

Below-the-surface compositions with the animal coming toward the viewer have real presence, and they need distance to work. Hang one at the end of a room or a corridor where you meet it from ten feet away. At close range the same image is simply large and toothy, which is fun in a games room and wearing in a lounge.

Consider who else uses the room. This is a popular children's subject, and a menacing crop that delights an eight-year-old at midday can be less welcome at bedtime. A profile silhouette or a shoal seen from below gives you the same animal without the confrontation.

Measure before ordering rather than guessing. Mark the intended size on the wall with masking tape and live with the outline for a day. Almost everyone who does this with a shark image ends up going bigger than their first instinct, and almost nobody regrets it.