Our picture finder is the perfect gift for any artist. Drawing Tools For Artists: The durable view catcher is made of strong ABS plastic with a small circular opening that helps you to see the "True" color.
ARTIST VIEWFINDER HOW TO
How To Use: To use the viewfinder artist tools just look through the window at your scene and notice where objects in your scene line up with the threads or corners of the viewfinder.Viewfinder For Slides: This 3” x 4” artists drawing aids tool allows you to look at a scene or object in eight sections without the distraction of surrounding elements and help to modify or draw with correct proportions.This article is an excerpt from the book Mastering Composition (2008, North Light Books) by Ian Roberts.įor additional information about the importance of design and compostion in a painting, see Ian Robert’s article Design Rules! in the September 2009 issue of The Artist’s Magazine, available at.
When you’re just walking around looking for something to paint, you can get a feeling for a composition and shapes by simply using your fingers as a viewfinder. It doesn’t take much practice before they realize they can control how much to include or exclude by adjusting the distance from the viewfinder to the eye. Sometimes when students first use a viewfinder, they feel limited by how much they can get into the frame. It also has red acetate, which is useful for determining value masses. The third viewfinder (available at has three rectangles with 1:2, 3:4 and 4:5 ratios divided into thirds. I glued two pieces of card together, inserting a sheet of acetate marked in thirds with a permanent marker between the pieces of card. I like square compostions, so I made a viewfinder with a square and with a 3:4 rectangle (9:12, 12:16). You can slide the inner piece back and forth to create any varation of height or width. I like the sturdy palatic one on the left (Viewcatcher, available at because it’s easy to carry in a pocket or pack without bending or crushing it. I think the three types pictured above are the most useful. That wonderful dark shape you saw way over on the left side, dividing the left third of the composition in half, somehow ends up occupying more than a quarter of the space instead of only one-sixth, and the whole dynamic of your composition is lost.Ĭommercially made and homemade viewfinders come in many variations. Without the thirds-indicators to help us, we inevitably tend to let things drift toward the middle into very static and conventional placement. They create pleasing visual divisions and will help you immeasurably in drawing accurately. You can place major masses along those lines. Some viewfinders divide the area of the rectangle into thirds.
Would your composition be better in a square, a horizontal or vertical format? The viewfinder allows you to quickly play with dozens of options. You can also adjust the proportions of height to width. As you locate these shapes and value masses, you start the process of translating the three-dimensional world into two dimensions. Use it to find big, simple shapes against small ones and light ones against dark ones. You can adjust the viewfinder back and forth, left and right, and up and down, looking for the most dramatic and engaging composition. The easiest way to find a pleasing arrangement of abstract shapes is with a viewfinder.Ī viewfinder is a simple device that allows you to isolate or “crop” a scene within a rectangular area.
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