What is Sight-Size?

Even if you’re not atelier-trained, you’ve probably used some sort of sight-size method to draw from life.  Anyone who ever tried to trace an image as a kid, then discovered their paper was too opaque and moved it to the side and marked the top and bottom guides had used sight size. 

So what is it?  Darren Rousar’s site says, “Sight-Size is a way of seeing and comparing nature to your drawing, painting or sculpture from a given distance. Using Sight-Size, the size you see the subject is the size you draw, paint or sculpt it.”

Darren’s site has excellent diagrams, explanations, demonstrations, history, and misconceptions regarding this method.  I had no idea there was such controversy!  :-)  Darren’s written 2 books on the subject too, which you can order from his site if you’re so inclined.

A simple diagram of a sight-size setup is here, http://www.sightsize.com/approach.html, but be sure to page through the rest o fthe site - there’s lot sof interesting stuff on there.