proportion

Lesson 8, Part VII: A Primer on Proportion

Embedded in the first few parts of Lesson 8 were a few rough exposures to proportion. Perspective and proportion are intimately related. Perspective is kind of a general heading we give to the category of techniques we use to deal with the effect distance has on the size of things. Proportion is both a subsection within perspective, but it's also it's own stand alone concept with or without being involved in perspective. I know, that's pretty vague. Let's flesh this out a little.

Look at the brick wall in the above illustration. It's shrinking in height and width as it recedes towards the horizon - as it moves away from us. Same with the cactus and the fire hydrant. In fact, the smaller cactus and the smaller hydrant are both about half the size of the cactus and hydrant in the front left of the picture. Those are quick and dirty examples of perspective. But there's a trick here.

Here's' the tickler. Now look at the hydrant in the rear right of the picture. It looks huge right? If you measure the "huge" hydrant in the back with a ruler and then measure the next biggest hydrant - the one in the front - guess what? You'll find they're both the same size. Go ahead, do a sighting. You'll see for yourself.

Our brains are fooled. Why? The hydrant in the back looks huge because the rest of the picture suggests distance: everything seems to be shrinking in a believable way. The wall looks tiny in comparison to even just the base of the hydrant. The picture appears to be consistent - and then you get this monstrous hydrant which your brain now exaggerates way beyond it's actual size. This is an illusion of perception. And it's one that'll really throws beginning artists (and experienced artists) as well.

Here's another illusion. Which blue line is longer? The one the bottom sure looks longer doesn't it? They're both about the same length - (in fact measured through it's most central axis, the one on top is actually a couple pixels longer!).

How do you "crack" this kind of misinformation? It's actually quite simple - but you'll have to believe some of your senses and discount others. Like a pilot with vertigo, do you believe the "seat of your pants" or do you believe your instruments? How do you decide? That's where sighting and proportion come to save the day.

Rather than trying to relearn the entire rules of linear perspective, artists today use what's called "sighting" - the more organic process of plain old comparisons.

When you see the stereotypical picture of an artist one eye closed, aiming down his outstretched arm with thumb up, he's not looking at his thumb, well he is, but not just his thumb. He's taking what in the art world they call a "sighting". And he's using his thumb because it's a convenient, reliable and consistent way of measuring.

What's he measuring? He's measuring, comparing, and relating everything he's considering drawing (angles, objects, negative spaces, shapes, anything that falls on the retina of his eye). And he's comparing them to his thumb. Comparing size, comparing and reckoning angles in comparison to vertical and horizontal. He could just as easily be using a ruler. This is the nitty gritty of drawing: you can fine tune your pictures through accurate sighting - much the way a musician tunes his guitar by comparing one string to the next.

In any given picture some things might be "a thumb length tall" or "3 thumbs wide" or a space might be "a half a thumb length thick". That's all sighting is: a kind of ad hoc way of taking anything you might be looking at and using the tools "at hand" for reckoning, comparing and relating all those relationships. Proportion is relationship in the most literal way.

The Greeks accurately produced perfectly proportioned human sculptures by coming up with a standard. Their starting point was overall size. Height was measured in "heads". ( 7and a 1/2 heads tall was considered the ideal height of the "magnanimous man".) Regardless of the height of the finished statue, if it followed that rule of "heads", the statue would appear "right" - that is, proportionate.

The feudal English had it tough: all measurement was based on the King's foot length. So it changed every time the there was a new King. (Until somebody's court just decided to stick with one standard sized foot.)

Horse's are measured in terms of "hands". Some Clydesdales are 16, 17 hands tall at the shoulder - or more. So proportion is measurement. So what can you use in your drawings?

These kind of measurements work - as long as they're consistent and everybody's in agreement that that's what you're going to use. It's just like the "gold standard" in International currency. But it doesn't matter if your own measuring system isn't international. As long as you use something consistent.

Deciding on a Unit of Measurement

You could use your pencil, a ruler, a paint brush, the length of a subjects nose - it doesn't matter. The object you choose to compare everything to becomes your "unit of measurement". You can change it any time you want to. You can use anything or any object in your viewfinder that "makes sense" as a unit of measurement. And what "makes sense" will become obvious to you as you do the exercises.

For instance, in this next link you're about to click on, there's two squares. Square #2 is twice as tall as square #1. But don't take my word on it. I want you to take a pencil, a ruler or your thumb and "sight" down your arm. Use that thumb, that pencil, that straight edge, even look between your thumb and and index finger, (the way you do when you say something is only "this big"), to relate the objects, to discover the ratios between them.