Here is a comment which i wanted to respond to as a post so that everyone can read it:

I have just purchased your 2006 book “Big Art small canvas” on Amazon and love it! I can tell that it is going to get me back into art again.
I particularly like your training in complimentary pallets, which explains things so clearly.
I already feel the book is a great reference on its own, but I will purchase your iPad version to watch the DVDs.
I am writing to you to make contact; to thank you for the inspiration, and start a conversation as I work through the book...I hope you don't mind?

My first question is: on page 14 you have a picture of some gessoed gauze or canvas with the caption referring to the frame guidelines. I understand the need for frame guidelines, but what was the real caption for this image?

Thank you again for the shot in the arm. I enthusiastically look forward to working my way through your book and appreciate your hard work and efforts.

Yours in art,
Martyn Fox
PS I live near ByronBay in Australia, so inspiration for landscape painting shouldn't be too hard to find, but I really appreciate and am inspired by your still life work as well. 

MY ANSWER:

Have you ever composed a painting and then later framed it just to have the frame cover a brushstroke that you really liked and would not have wanted covered by the frame? I was trying to show that you need to take this into consideration when doing very small paintings. The frame is going to cover a significant part of the painting and it's a good idea to allow for this at the beginning of the process. So I drew a rectangle to indicate how far into the canvas a frame would eventually go and then composed from that point. By the way, sight size is a term framers use to indicate which portion of the painting will actually be seen after framing. Hope that answers your question Martyn!