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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