studio
Sight-Size Method
Placing the canvas next to the model at the same scale and viewing distance, so a mark on the canvas can be judged against the subject 1:1 from several paces back.
What it actually is
The painter sets up the easel directly next to the sitter, at the same height, and retreats six to twelve feet to view both at once. The canvas and the subject appear at the same scale and are lit by the same light. The painter walks back to observe, walks forward to place a single mark, retreats again. Sargent famously wore visible tracks into the studio carpet through this rhythm. The technique was inherited from Carolus-Duran and became the backbone of late-nineteenth-century French atelier training; it underlies most of the modern Atelier Movement.
Painters who used this
Related techniques
Zenith Light
Top-down overhead light from a glass-paneled ceiling, producing shadowless, even illumination across large canvases.
Standing Practice
Painting while standing, on the belief that sitting flattens the energy of the mark and the range of the arm.
North-Light Studio
A window or skylight facing north, giving cool, consistent indirect light that never contains direct sun.
Monumental Plein Air
Painting large finished canvases outdoors in direct sunlight rather than making small studies to be finished in a studio.
Social Sitting
Working from a sitter who is talking, being read to, or in animated conversation—rather than holding a static pose.