Sight-size / Sightsize Drawing Method:  The sight-size method allows the painter to view the subject accurately, and translate three-dimensional form in two dimensions.

"Students apply the sight-size method of measurement and observation to casts, still lifes, the human figure and portraiture.  Students work through specific exercises, on a step by step progression through the curriculum. 

As each requisite skill is acquired, a new more difficult task is assigned. Upon successful completion of the program, students [who have been taught sight-size appropriately], should have acquired a very high practical ability, together with a deep insight into the theory and historical traditions of drawing."
From the website of The Florence Academy of Art, Description of Intensive Drawing Program
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Article:  The Benefits of Sight-Size Drawing by M. Stephen Doherty - American Artist Magazine, Nov. 2006
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Note: While professional painters pursuing a full-time career will develop an "eye" that precludes the need for measuring devices and plumb lines (tools necessary during the training period), the method itself is not abandoned - 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. 

Adrian Gottlieb

GottliebStudios.com/Classical_Glossary

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