Saturday 24 March 2012

Viewfinder... and doodles, by the way

The viewfinder is an invaluable resource for artists in composing a picture for painting. Simply put, a viewfinder is a piece of card with a rectangular window cut in the middle. It works like a window and helps the artist to find compositions for painting. All the artist has to do is look through.



It can be held in various ways to edit the view in front. First of all, you can hold it to create a PORTRAIT VIEW (vertical) or a LANDSCAPE VIEW (horizontal):
Sometimes you can create more sophisticated viewfinders...
Adjustable frame to choose different formats
To place the main lines of the composition
With self-adhesive Velcro to choose the format and size

Another use of a viewfinder:
You can use a viewfinder as an isolation frame to choose a piece of a drawing which is going to be your next drawing to develop.
For example:
Susan Sorrell:  "...Doodling is my main inspiration for my artwork. I like the letting go and just playing with shapes and designs..never knowing what I will come up with. I try to fill up a page in my sketch book as a challenge to my creative side. As soon as the page is filled, I pull out my trusty isolation frame to find my ideas for my next painting."
Doodle by Susan Sorrell
Susan Sorrell's doodle with the isolation frame to choose the part she is interested in.

Final artwork by Susan Sorrell
  • A doodle is an unfocused drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes. I'm sure all of as have done doodles.
Example of a doodle



TASK
Making a viewfinder is quite easy. We have built a simple one in class to practice with it. For homework you will have to build a better one using a cardboard.

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