Best texture size for making paintings?

Hello! I hope I put this question in the right section.

Well, I'm trying to make my own paintings to throw on the wall in SL. I've heard the best resolution (fast loading) is around 500x500. Is that so?

I believe my paintings are loosing a bit quality when I try to stretch them a bit. I have to keep them pretty small to keep a good picture quality. Can I make the pic 1024x(x) to keep a good quality without getting a slow dl for viewers? I see pretty big paintings at galleries and they have good quality, so I'm just asking what resulotion should I have for best quality and what kb-size are acceptable?

Always stick with powers of two. So 512 x 512, and not 500 x 500.

If it is a BIG painting, like a huge pic above a couch or fireplace, and has lots of detail, then 512 x 512 may be the way to go. Otherwise I would go for more like 256 x 256 or 128 x 128.

If you are doing your own textures for several paintings to be displayed in the same build, do a texture sheet, and incorporate several pics in one larger 512 x 512 texture. For example, one 512 x 512 that has 4 256 x 256 pics in it. This will load faster (only one call on the asset server instead of 4) and they all rez at once.

Nice! Thank's for your answer.