A Sense of Scale

by Armand Cabrera



Scale can be a tricky thing in a painting. It is not important to paint large paintings to have a sense of grandeur on your art. What is important is making yourself aware of the principles and using those to your advantage so you don’t have to resort to clichés of constantly adding tiny people or other recognizable objects to make the illusion work. While these are one way of creating a sense of scale their use should never be a substitution for good design and a thoughtful approach to the subject at hand.

I think the first thing you need to create a sense of scale is correct aerial perspective. All your vanishing points must be accurate and your horizon line must be established. This is true for landscapes without manmade structures as well as paintings with them. Perspective will create overlapping forms and the proper arrangement of these will help the illusion of space and distance.


A secondary effect of scale is atmosphere; painting things with the proper lessening of chroma and value as they recede into the distance. There is no formula for this and you must be a keen observer of the subtle shifts that take place and act as visual clues for scale and distance.


Another effect is the loss of detail as you take in larger areas of view. It seems counter intuitive at first but the bigger something is the less detail you can see on it. If you can see a complete eight story building in your view, the inclusion of individual panes of glass on the windows only shrinks the idea of scale for the viewer.

It is the same with natural things in the landscape a distant hillside looks smaller if you paint every tree on it as opposed to getting its overall form and color and value. People often do this with large bodies of water. They focus on the waves and when they paint them the waves height to width ratio is enormously exaggerated reducing the scale of the ocean in the process.


Lighting is also important for a sense of scale. Outdoors light falls in parallel rays and you have to make sure you paint it that way or you will give the illusion of indoor point source lighting and shrink the sense of scale.

Many times the emotional response we feel to a subject is based in large part on a sweeping sense of scale. Making yourself aware of the effect scale has on what you are observing will help you capture that sense of scale in even small paintings


The Power of Form

by
Armand Cabrera
Form is one of those aspects of picture making that lend an extra level of illusion to a painting. It is important when trying to render form to not get caught in superfluous detail or conversely too broad a handling. Over rendering can flatten the elements of a painting just as much as too much simplification.

 Harriet Lumis

Dennis Miller Bunker


Many plein air paintings today have a slap dash approach ignoring the subtleties of the scenes depicted. This short hand  might have some superficial charm but when placed next to paintings with sensitive observation they fall short every time.
Aldro Hibbard

Edgar Payne


In my opinion, the best painters render form simply with a keen eye to the angle of the light in the scene. Great painters can abstract the geometric plane changes in a way that creates the illusion of detail when none is present. Painting forms well will create solidity to them. To do this the artist must be aware of the subtle color and value shifts that create the illusion of dimension for an object. The angle of the light must be consistent throughout the image. The light dictates the quality of the shadows and they too must be consistent for the type of light. There is also an understanding of perspective and how it affects every object in the scene.

Isaac Levitan


N.C. Wyeth

Edges are also important and correctly observing the type of edge needed to turn a form requires careful observation. This type of observation is important throughout the painting and is difficult to do when painting from life. I always try to spend some time walking around getting to know the place I’m going to paint, if it is a local scene I make multiple trips to it to see things in different types of lighting situations. Walking around allows you to see the objects in the scene from more than one angle. An elements contour can be deceptive and make you think it is shaped in a way that it really isn’t. Moving around the elements allows you greater understanding and the forms become more apparent.

Carl Rungius

   Peder Kroyer

Painting form adds power to your paintings. The secret lies in a more sensitive approach and careful observations. This is achieved by slowing down and spending time contemplating your subject before you begin to put brush to canvas.

John Singer Sargent

Dean Cornwell

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MISTAKES IN CHOOSING EMAIL ADDRESSES

by
Diane Burket


Choose an email address using your domain name…and never change it again!


If you’re using an email address with someone else’s domain name---you’re losing a great branding tool---and you’re advertising for other people. Comcast, Hotmail, Yahoo, Charter, AOL, Gmail, and other ISP’s are happy you’re giving them free advertising…but it’s not helping your business at all.

What am I talking about?

Here are 2 of my websites: http://www.dianeburket.com/ and http://www.armandcabrera.com/

I use diane@dianeburket.com and diane@armandcabrera.com for my primary email addresses. Although my Internet Service Provider (ISP) is Comcast….I don’t use the Comcast email they provide. (d_burket@comcast.net).

Why? Well, why would I advertise for Comcast? I already pay them for a service….I don’t need to advertise for them with every email I send! I’d rather advertise for myself.

Every email you send should have your own branding on it….not someone else’s branding. It’s your way to get your website address out there to everyone on the receiving end of your emails.

Most website hosts give you multiple email addresses FOR FREE! I use IXWebhosting.com. Inexpensive, (I pay only $3.95/month) great service…and 2,500 email addresses. Of course, I’ll never need that many. Take advantage of this benefit---you’re already paying for it.

I’m always surprised to see art gallery owners, actors, business owners, etc. using their ISP’s email addresses. gallery@comcast.net, actor@hotmail.com These same people spend countless dollars on advertising and press---but when it comes to their own email address, they advertise for someone else. Makes no sense.

Another benefit to consider in using your domain name email address…You don’t have to change your email address every time you move or switch to a different ISP. How often do you get a change of email address notice from family, friends and business associates? If they’ve got their own website, it’s unnecessary to change their email address every time they change ISP’s or jobs.

My partner and I moved across the United States a few years ago. We didn’t have to change our email address even though we changed locations and changed ISP’s. Our customers didn’t lose track of us and we didn’t have to bother them with a change of address notice. Simple.


So----if you’ve got a website, brand with yourself and never change your email address again!

Diane Burket is an award-winning Voice Over Professional. She has been voicing scripts for over 20 years. She can be heard on National Commercials, Corporate Films, Training Videos, Telephone Prompts, Internet Sites and Multimedia recordings. In addition to her Voice Over, Diane also is the Agent for Armand Cabrera, a nationally-known oil painter represented by fine art galleries across the United States.


http://www.dianeburket.com/

http://www.armandcabrera.com/

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Valentin Serov

by Armand Cabrera


Valentin Serov was born on January 7, 1865 In Saint Petersburg. His father Alexander Serov was a composer and music critic and his mother Valentina was a pianist. Serov’s father died when he was 6. His family moved to Munich and then Paris and at 9 Serov took lessons from Repin at his Paris studio learning to draw from casts and paint from life.




His family returned to Russia a year later first to Kiev then to Moscow. In Moscow Serov resumed studies with Repin for two more years. In 1880 Repin sent Serov to the Academy in Saint Petersburg for formal training under Pavel Christiakov. Serov studied at the Academy for five years.




In 1889 Serov married Olga Trubnikova.
He won a medal for his portrait of Angelo Masini in 1890 at the Moscow Society of Art Lovers. In 1897 he began teaching at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. In 1900 Serov received the Grand Medal of Honor at the Paris World Exhibition for his portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich.






Serov is considered the first Russian Portraitist to break from academic tradition and adopt a modern style. He worked as an impressionist using his academic training as an anchor for his expressive handling. His paintings captured the character of the sitter with bravura brushwork and strong sensitivity to color and shape over detail. He quickly became a much sought after portraitist.





Serov’s portraits have an immediacy and intimacy to them they seem to be snapshots of a moment in time with the sitter. This seemingly casual approach and required much effort on the artists part and his paintings often took weeks and sometimes months to complete.

Valentin Serov died in Moscow on November 22, 1911 at the age of 46.


Bibliography

Valentin Serov
Dimitri Sarabyanov and GrigoryArbuzov
1982 Aurora Publishing

The Itinerants The masters of Russian Realism
Elena Nesterova
1996 Aurora Publishing




Quote

Any human face is so complex and so unique that you can always find in it traits worthy of portrayal be they good or bad. For my part, each time I appraise a person’s face I am inspired, you might even say carried away, not by his or her outer aspect which is trivial, but by the characterization it can be given on canvas.~ Valentin Serov