From the course manual:
“Aim: The focus of this project is to explode notions of scale and experiment with an extreme change of scale to achieve a powerful drawing which suggests monumental landscape or architecture. Before you start work, spend some time thinking about the implications of manipulating scale in drawing composition, for example scaling up a particular feature of a landscape, still life, or even a portrait.“
In order to understand the scale of an object, I need to understand it in context. I will always perceive an object in comparison to another that I already have a sense of scale for. For example, If I see a human, or a car, I will have a stored idea of roughly how big they are. If I see a pebble the size of a human, I will perceive it as a rock, not a pebble, and if it is much larger than the human, as a hill or mountain maybe.
“Method: Find a handful of small objects, e.g. pebbles, shells, buttons, toys. Cluster these objects together and focus in on a cropped area. Experiment with using a frame for this. Make a large drawing which gives the impression of a landscape view or architectural detail, using these objects as your source material.“
“By cropping your subject you’ll ensure that the whole composition has power and energy.”
I immediately imagine to use pills as my subject- very small objects that can quickly become very big in our awareness in the case of illness, or addiction or also in the overuse of medication in our society.
Wanting to create a context that shows the changing scale of the pills, I place them in my hand (quick drawings in my sketchbook)
I know more or less how big a hand is, so when comparing the pills to the hand, I have a sense of their size. When they are much bigger than the hand, they seem huge.
How can I do this without the hand? I can choose a low standpoint, as if I am small and looking up at them. I try out several versions and viewpoints in pencil in my sketchbook:
Adding only a horizon line does not give the wanted effect. I try placing the pills against walls, or brick walls, as I intuitively know how big a brick is.
A tiled wall makes me think of a hospital, a brick wall some storage unit maybe.
I have decided that I will include the walls to put the pills in the context of a room.
I create a little “miniroom” with a folded paper and try out many compositions by photographing them:
These are the two compositions I choose to explore:
I am remembering the paintings of Alex Hanna, often featuring packages of pills leaning against a wall in monochrome paintings. I will keep the colour scheme very subdued too, echoing the dullness or sadness of the subject.
I want to draw as big as I can, so I use a roll of brown packing paper that I stitch together for a piece of 160x 120 cm:
I first try out both compositions in small in diluted acrylic on the same brown paper:
I choose the composition to the left and square it up to my very large paper:
I start with very diluted acrylics, but soon see that I need to use more coats to have the lightness of tone that I want. I am using Titanium White and Payne’s Grey Amsterdam acrylic paints.
I add the shadows in Indian ink:
I choose this paper because it allowed me to draw a very big picture, I might have had an advantage of starting from a white background and achieved subtler tones. In the flesh, as it is so big, the drawing has a rather strong impact already. On the photograph, I see that the composition is not yet enough to show a real change in scale. Maybe the pills are just lying in a small package for example, and are shown on a billboard.
I need to add another element to the context- like the tiles, that I will perceive as having a certain determined size that I know from experience. I will also add a hint of the ceiling of this “room”.
While marking the ceiling in charcoal and plotting out the bricks, I have a spontaneous idea to add the element of a door instead. A door will immediately show that this is a room, and we have an intuitive knowledge of the size of a door. This will be the final element that will really make the change in scale clear:
This is the final image, 160x120cm on brown paper, Amsterdam acrylics and Indian ink:
I think I have achieved an extreme change in scale in this image- the pills look huge put in the context of the room. The dimensions of the room became clearer when adding the elements of the ceiling and the door.
I think the pills have an oppressive, rather threatening quality which also reflects how something so small can become so big in my awareness.
Clara's Drawing 2 