Sight-size Technique
When painting a portrait using the sight-size method, the artist stands back at a given distance from which subject and image are equal to the eye. The canvas is placed alongside the sitter so that the painting is seen to the scale of life.
When painting a portrait using the sight-size method, the artist stands back at a given distance from which subject and image are equal to the eye. The canvas is placed alongside the sitter so that the painting is seen to the scale of life.
"Sargent, when he painted the size of life, placed his canvas on a level with the model, walked back until canvas and sitter were equal before the eye, and was able to estimate the construction and values of his representation... (T)he placing of the canvas near to, or at a given distance from the subject, so that the sitter and image can be compared together, is an essential factor of representative painting. Painters often deplore the loss of tradition, and speak with regret of the days when artists ground their own colours; but knowledge of the visual methods of the older painters, rather than of their technical practices, seems to me of equal, if not greater importance. The methods of Velasquez and Hals were not unlike Sargent's."
- William Rothenstein (1872 - 1945)
- William Rothenstein (1872 - 1945)
"The use of sight-size imparts certain aesthetic and technical attributes to a painting, notably the broad handling that comes into focus when seen at the viewing distance. Its principle aim is unity of effect, the tout-ensemble advocated by de Piles in his Cours de Peinture par Principes and by Reynolds in Discourse IX. Painters who employ the method work straight onto the canvas with colours keyed to, or which anticipate, those of nature, making changes to their endeavour as part of the creative process. A sight-size painting displays qualities of modelling and brushwork that owe more to the method itself than the stylistic conventions of a particular era. Thus portrait painters born a century apart like Raeburn (1756) and Sargent (1856) can share a consistency of procedure and artistic intent. "
- Nicholas Beer (Sarum Studio)
- Nicholas Beer (Sarum Studio)
