Category: Artist Blog

What exactly is a viewfinder?

A viewfinder is a useful tool that many photographers and painters use.

In photography, it is the apparatus on the camera that the photographer looks through to compose the photograph he/she wants to take.

In oil painting, a viewfinder is a tool that serves a similar purpose. Artists use these devices as an aid in organizing the scenery of their paintings. It can be moved around to isolate the most appealing aspects of the scenery. A viewfinder achieves this by cutting out the unnecessary elements, resulting in a significantly better composition.

How to Make an Artist’s Viewfinder

Making a viewfinder requires little effort. There are two types: window and L-shape. Both types are simple to make, and which one you choose to use depends on the canvas you plan to paint on. They can easily be made from materials such as cardboard, matboard, or paper.

Making a Window Viewfinder

For standard-size canvases, you may want to choose the window viewfinder. Take a simple piece of paper, scrap matboard, or thin cardboard and cut a rectangular window in the center to look through. The window opening should be proportionate to the prepared canvas in height and width. For example, a 16″ x 20″ canvas would require the viewfinder window to be 2″ x 2.5″ or 4″ x 5″.

Other proportions that might be useful are:

Canvas Size

Window Cutout Size

After carefully measuring and cutting out the window opening, move it slowly around on the surface of your snapshot until the image that interests you appears in the opening. Once you have decided on the composition, tape the viewfinder in position on your photograph to hold it in place.

The Lighthouse of Palo Duro Canyon by Teresa Bernard (2016) 16″ w x 12″ h Click on the image or link above for more information.

Making an L-shaped Viewfinder

The L-shaped viewfinder is helpful in determining what size canvas is required if you do not plan on using a standard-size canvas. The two L’s work together much like the aperture of a camera. You move them out and away from each other to enlarge the opening, or you move them closer together to shrink the inside opening.

The L-shaped viewfinder can be made from two L-shaped pieces of cardboard, matboard, or paper. When placed together, they create a frame around your area of focus. You then look through this frame to determine the scene you wish to paint. To make one, you will need a ruler and pencil to draw two identical-sized L-shaped pieces. A good width is about two inches, so they can easily crop out the unwanted areas of the scenery. The length of the arms of each L can be any size; however, 6″ to 8″ works best if you are going to use it on photographs.

How to Use an Artist’s Viewfinder

Using the viewfinder is a simple technique that has been around and used by artists for centuries. What a viewfinder does is frame in and crop out unimportant areas of an image. The elements inside the frame will make up an attractive focal point that can be used to begin your painting.

How this is done is to take your image and slowly move the viewfinder around until you pinpoint a precise spot that makes an eye-catching center of interest. Once you have your composition picked out, attach the viewfinder to the picture using low-adhesive tape to hold it in place. This will permit you to make several drawings of the scene needed or sketch it directly onto the canvas, getting it ready for painting.

Girl in The Red Dress by Teresa Bernard (2020) 24″ w x 18″ h Click on the image or link above for more information.

A viewfinder is also beneficial for training your eye to distinguish a good composition. This instrument will give the artist an idea of how an arrangement might work as a viable composition. Over time, your “mind’s eye” will become adept at ignoring extraneous elements, allowing you to visualize compositions without any assistance.

Lastly, both viewfinders can be used in either portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) orientations. This allows the artist to use it as a drawing aid to determine which orientation works best for their painting. Positioning the viewfinder vertically accentuates the view’s top and bottom, while a horizontal hold highlights the composition’s width. This helps you focus on particular parts of the scene, enabling you to decide what will make the best composition, both in terms of emphasis and orientation.

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FROM THE EDITORS: We hope you enjoyed this blog about using a viewfinder and found it’s information to be useful. We’re sure you’ll enjoy the paintings below too. For more information and details, click or tap the thumbnail link.

Art Gallery Quick Links

Flowers     |     Landscapes     |     Marine     |     People

Space Art     |     Still Life     |     Wildlife

Additional Reading

Tightly Cropped Paintings — The Art of Focus and Intrigue

Using a Grid to Enlarge and Transfer an Image to Canvas

You can find more details on this subject and many others in the My Artist Blog Index.

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The Grid Enlarging Technique

Grid enlarging is a simple technique used by artists every day to create sensational works of art. The best part is that it doesn’t require advanced drawing skills to obtain remarkable outcomes using this method. You’d be surprised to learn that many of the world’s greatest oil painters are not skilled in drawing. They compensate for this by using the grid enlarging technique to start their paintings. What grid enlarging does is to help the artist transfer a smaller image onto a larger canvas, capturing as much detail as desired. Ultimately their paintings become beautiful works of art

What exactly is grid enlarging?

A grid is a series of equally spaced horizontal and vertical lines that intersect to form a boxed pattern. It serves to divide the original image into smaller blocks to see what goes where more easily. Grid enlarging can be a valuable exercise in helping to improve your drawing and observational skills.

Grid enlarging is the process of using a grid to precisely copy and enlarge a smaller image onto a larger canvas. Artists use this technique regularly as part of preparing their canvases for painting. It entails drawing a grid on your reference image and then drawing another grid on your canvas of equal or greater proportion. Then, one square at a time, you draw the picture onto your canvas, concentrating on the contents of each square until the image is complete.

Red Poinsettia by Teresa Bernard (2023) 12″ w x 9″ h Click on the image or link above for more information.

5 Easy Steps to Grid Enlarging

Drawing your Grid

Step 1: Select your reference photograph and use a viewfinder to isolate the section you want to paint. Next, you will need to determine the proportions of your composition. It is important that the image and the canvas be in the same proportion. For example, a composition that measures 4″ x 5″ is the same proportion as a 16″ x 20″ or 24″ x 30″ canvas. If your canvas is 12″ x 16″ or 18″ x 24″, then you will need to crop your reference photo to 3″ x 4″ or 6″ x 8″.

Smart tip: For detailed information about what a viewfinder is and how to use one, see the article titled "Making and Using a Viewfinder to Compose Better Paintings."

Step 2: The most important thing to keep in mind when drawing your grid is it must be in a 1-to-1 ratio. The size of your reference photo must always be equal in proportion to the size of the canvas. Failing to follow this principle will result in a distorted drawing. Equally important is the lines must be evenly space both vertically and horizontally, intersecting to form perfect squares.

Smart tip: After you have drawn your grids on both your reference photo and canvas, count the number of squares in each row and column on your canvas. It should be the same amount as the ones in your picture.

Step 3: Use a pencil and ruler to carefully measure and mark along the outside edge of the photo. Put tick marks at every inch, half-inch, or quarter inch, depending on the size of your reference image and how much detail you need to transfer. Then carefully connect your marks by lightly drawing your grid directly onto the image.

Draw the grid lightly so that it can be easily erased once you’re finished. If you don’t want to draw on your photograph, you can tape a piece of clear acetate over your picture and then draw your grid on it using a very fine-point Sharpie marker.

Smart tip: Use a mechanical pencil to draw your grid. A mechanical pencil produces a very thin and precise line.

Transferring Your Image

Step 4: Begin your transfer by drawing everything you see in one block of the reference photograph into the corresponding block on your canvas. Concentrate on one square at a time until it is fully completed, then proceed to the next square.  Disregard squares you’re not working on until you come to them. The reason you should focus on only one square at a time is so that you will end up drawing what is actually there—what your eye sees—rather than what you think should be there.

Along the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) by Teresa Bernard (2001) 12″ w x 9″ h Click on the image or link above for more information.

Copy all the details you see in that one little block on the photo to its corresponding block on your canvas. Be sure to include the shadows and highlights too. Continue this process one block at a time until all the blocks have been drawn onto your canvas. When you have finished that last block, you will have a very close rendering of your reference photo.

Begin your drawing with the top left square (A1) and proceed across and down the canvas, moving row by row and column by column, until your detailed drawing is complete. Pay careful attention to make sure you are in the correct square, or your drawing will be off, and you will have to erase some of the drawing and start over from the point where you went off-grid.

An excellent way to keep your blocks straight is to label them numerically and alphabetically along the edges of the photo and canvas. The first block on your canvas located in the top left corner would be block A1. The next one to the right on the same row would be block A2, and so forth. This technique will prevent you from losing your place, particularly in larger paintings.

Smart tip: Use a thin piece of sharpened charcoal instead of a pencil when transferring your drawing. The advantage of charcoal over pencil is that charcoal can be easily wiped off with your finger, kneaded eraser, paper towel, or rag, whereas pencil lead requires more effort to erase. Spray with a fixative to keep your charcoal drawing from rubbing off when you finish your drawing.

Step 5: Once you have transferred the entire image onto the canvas, carefully remove the grid lines and start painting.

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FROM THE EDITORS: We hope you enjoyed this blog about grid enlarging and found it’s information to be useful. We’re sure you’ll enjoy the paintings below too. For more information and details, click or tap the thumbnail link.

Art Gallery Quick Links

Flowers     |     Landscapes     |     Marine     |     People

Space Art     |     Still Life     |     Wildlife

Additional Reading

Making and Using a Viewfinder to Compose Better Paintings

The Importance of Varnishing Oil Paintings

You can find more details on this subject and many others in My Artist Blog Index. Check it out!

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Feel free to share this with your friends.

One of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received came from a renowned artist who, after seeing several of my paintings, said that I had my own artistic style. This came as a surprise to me, as I had cultivated my distinctive style over the years, without realizing it.

Until that day, I hadn’t given much thought to even having my own art style, much less trying to develop one. What’s more, I barely even knew what an art style was. I knew all the Old Masters had it and that it was something good to have. So, I set out to find out more about artistic style, what it is, and where it comes from.

What exactly is artistic style?

Artistic style is a specific characteristic or group of characteristics that are consistently present in the works of an artist. It’s that extra little thing that an artist does to set himself apart from other artists.

Many artists, whether they realize it or not, have an identifiable painting style. Their artistic style is neither good nor bad. It’s simply the result of the particular choices and decisions a painter makes while composing his or her oil paintings. These decisions define the identity of an artist’s style and are made up of a combination of the mediums, techniques, and subject matter chosen. It’s not that an artist chooses to paint landscapes, still life, or portraits—those are only genres. Instead, it is HOW the artist handles each of the various art elements—line, form, texture, value, color, and shape—that make up the composition.

Should you develop your own artistic style?

I would say “YES!” If you ever hope to be taken seriously as an artist, you need to develop your artistic style and here are some reasons why:

1. Cultivating your artistic style will help to define you and set you apart from other artists. It’s your individuality and uniqueness as an artist.

2. It’s the unique quality that enables others to identify your work as your own, even without seeing the signature on the canvas.

3. It provides a means to attain personal fulfillment through your art by conveying your concepts and inner perspective.

4. If you intend to exhibit your paintings in art galleries, having a distinct art style is often something that gallery owners or curators look for in your work.

5. Finally, developing your style is necessary if you want your paintings to capture the eye of art collectors. For many art connoisseurs, an artist’s style is what truly defines their art.

How do you develop your artistic style?

Before I can tell you how to do that, I need to tell you how NOT to develop one. You won’t develop your artistic style by copying the works of other artists. Let me repeat that. If you copy the works of another artist, you will never develop a unique art style of your own. The reason for this is that when you copy someone’s work, you are merely imitating the choices and decisions already made by that another artist has already made, rather than making your own.

Novice painters often do this. They copy the works of other artists they like, and this is a disservice to the world of art. As long as they continue to do this, they will never develop their unique artistic expression and move beyond being a mere hobbyist to a serious artist or even a professional. Your artistic style is shaped by the decisions YOU make about the numerous elements that go into your artwork.

An artist’s distinctive style does not develop overnight. It evolves over time due to either conscious or unconscious effort on the part of the artist and is likely to undergo numerous transformations as the artist matures. The best way to develop a style is to do a lot of painting. In doing so, you can expect your art style to progress as you acquire more experience, knowledge, and skills. As you move from painting to painting, you will find that specific artistic characteristics or qualities will reoccur repeatedly. This is your unique style. It’s important to remember that you don’t have to continue with the same art style for the rest of your life. You have the ability to change it at any time, and you will be surprised to learn that it can, and frequently does, evolve.

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FROM THE EDITORS: We hope you enjoyed this blog about developing you own artistic style and found it’s information to be useful. We’re sure you’ll enjoy the paintings below too. For more information and details, click or tap the thumbnail link.

Art Gallery Quick Links

Flowers     |     Landscapes     |     Marine     |     People

Space Art     |     Still Life     |     Wildlife

Additional Reading

A Painting in the Making

DIY Storage for Fine Art Paintings

More information about this topic and many others can be found in My Artist Blog Index. Check it out!

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Feel free to share this with your friends.