Believed by some to have been invented in the 13th century, the sight-size drawing method first appears in recorded history in Roger de Piles’ Cours de Peinture par Principes of 1708. Still taught in classical ateliers, the method resolves many of the visual difficulties of drawing and painting from life. Simply put, it is a method of viewing one’s model and one’s drawing simultaneously, so that both images appear the same size, whereby one stands a specific distance away to look, and then comes forward only to make the marks. Sight-size is usually taught to students in a way that incorporates measuring.

Standing back from the easel using the sight size method

The artist first sets a vantage point where the subject and the drawing surface appear to be the same size. Then, using a variety of measuring tools – which can include strings, sticks, mirrors, levels, and plumb-bobs – the artist draws the subject so that, when viewed from the set vantage point, the drawing and the subject have exactly the same dimensions. When properly done, sight-size drawing can result in extremely accurate and realistic drawings. It can also be used to draw the exact dimensions for a subject in preparation for a painting.

Student using the mirror

Professional painters will in time, develop an ‘eye’ that precludes the need for measuring devices and plumb lines, but the observation method itself is not abandoned – instead it becomes second nature. Sight-size can be taught and applied in conjunction with a particular sensitivity to gesture to create life-like imagery; especially when applied to portraiture and figurative works.