Cha Nesha's Design Spot: Scale and Proportion

Scale and Proportion

Human scale reference-

frescoes- A mural painting technique in which pigments mixed in water are used to form the desired color. These pigments are then applied to wet lime plaster, thereby binding with and becoming an integral part of a wall.
pop artists- An art movement originating in the 1960s that sought inspiration from everyday popular culture and the techniques of commercial art.
Earthworks- Artworks created by altering a large area of land using natural and organic materials. Earthworks are usually large-scale projects that take formal advantage of the local topography.

Internal references- The scale of artworks can impress or hold our attention through their actual size. Scale within a work of art provides meaning, context, and often a clue to how it is made or how we are meant to interpret the image or object. As we have seen, the most powerful point of reference is our own size.
Internal proportions- The second way to discuss artistic scale is to consider the size and scale of elements within the design or pattern. The scale here, of course, is relative to the overall area of the format—a big element in one painting might be small in a larger work. Again, we often use the term proportion to describe the size relationships between various parts of a unit.

Contrast of scale- there are 2 main ways to show contrast of scale.

Having the subject of the art larger or smaller than reality.
Having the canvas/paper/etc. larger or smaller than the subject.

Manipulation scale and proportion- surrealism and fantasy.

Surrealism- An artistic style that stresses fantastic and subconscious approaches to art making and often results in images that cannot be rationally explained.

Geometry and the Ideal- The ancient Greeks desired to discover ideal proportions. These took the form of mathematical ratios. The Greeks found the perfect body to be seven heads tall and even idealized the proportions of the parts of the body.

Root Rectangles- Root rectangles have proportions such as 1:√2 1:√3 and 1:√5. This is a unique rectangle in that each half of the rectangle is also a proportion. Each half has the same proportion (but in a vertical orientation) as the whole painting.