The wisdom of smalls

Yesterday, Andrée M. Kuhne of Kingston, Ontario, Canada wrote, "My friends and I exchange our art by email to get feedback. Why does art look so much better on a small scale than in the original?"

Thanks, Andrée. Great question. It's the same phenomenon as viewing your work from a distance. If it's a really great distance, like half a mile, the work can look pretty excellent indeed. You can tell it's a painting but you can't tell what's wrong with it. Good system for the self-delusional.

More to the point, as a tool for finding out what's wrong with a work, like the thumbnail that's often made beforehand, a medium-small reduction is a highly useful ploy. Several ways can make this work for you, and with today's technology, they're fast.

The simplest way is to take a picture with a digital camera and then review the painting on the camera's display. Just this simple transposition often brings out composition weaknesses and problematic areas.

Another valuable tool is to photograph the work in progress and print it out. I recommend doing this in black and white. I reduce large paintings to about 5 x 7 inches. When you reduce your work to a value study you are better able to see strengths and weaknesses. In my case, I most often notice a shortage of middle tones and grey areas that are so necessary for satisfactory work. I can't tell you how many times I've found too many leaden darks and too many chalky whites. Viewing the original, you tend to get lost in the tyranny of colour.

Another ploy, similar to glancing at your work in a mirror, is to print the work in reverse. Many picture-software programs do this handily. Funnily, in reverse, compositional faults come at you like a moose in rut.

Now here's another: Take a shot that's purposely out of focus. The print will reveal large masses that either work or don't work. It's like half-closing your eyes--squinting--one of the most valuable studio ploys. This system has felicitous results for me--I've often gone back into a painting and softened certain edges to good effect. Blurred areas pick up mystery and intrigue. Further, hard edges poorly done can often profit from the business of obfuscation. A soft-focus printout gives you permission to obfuscate.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "A well-composed painting is half done." (Pierre Bonnard) "Composing a picture, do many thumbnails, rejecting the obvious ones." (Irwin Greenberg) "Get the art of controlling the observer--that is composition." (Robert Henri)

Esoterica: You can leave quality in the hands of the gods, or you can elect to use every diagnostic ploy at your disposal. Inspections-in-progress give the professional's edge. Some artists simply train themselves to employ the troubleshooting mini-events a thousand times as they go along. To get the "big picture," the "little picture" is often needed. As a partner in the learning process, the "little guy" is a welcome handyman.