Matching composition to the setting?

[Cindy Procious]

A low vantage point might lend it a Sistine chapel-esque feeling, but you're still going to have some serious problems of distortion that would need to be addressed.

If you look up at the wall on which the painting will be hung, you'll notice the perspective - it can be quite dramatic. Picture it as a parallelogram - depending on how high up it is, and how sharp the viewing angle, the top of the shape could be as much as a foot smaller than the bottom.

If you don't take this into consideration then you'll wind up with huge feet and tiny heads. And then, even worse - what if the painting is visible from the stairs, and the upper level - looking back into the entry way? What a nightmare of conflicting vantage points.

If I were you, I'd urge them to pick a different spot.

[Garth Herrick]

Julie,

I was just in this same situation; well sort of.....

I just completed and had unveiled the portrait of a Philadelphia Union League president, to be hung in their colossal ballroom with fifty previous portraits of the same size and subject category. I knew full well that at various times in the future, this portrait may be hung twenty feet up or more! So I too wrestled with the issue of an ideal vantage point to begin with. Reflecting upon what exists in the collection, every painting is fairly conservative with a normal eye-level vantage point perspective; and you know what? That works just fine! Our brains can make the jump quite readily and accept the odd placement high on a wall as normal. I ended up with a normal eye-level setting in my portrait too.

I agree with Michele that one can never know the ultimate venue or site of a commission. I know I did one huge painting twenty some years back that inspirted a complete gutting and redesign of an historic center city brick townhome! They spent six figures to better show of fthe painting! So, you never know..... it could end up in a museum one day, three feet up from the floor.....

Good luck,

Garth

[Julie Deane]

Thanks, Michele, Cindy and Garth -

I guess I'll go with a normal perspective depending on what looks good with the children and the scene.

Mom wants separate portraits so that the kids can each have theirs when they are grown. She could have picked two other spots for display in the house, but they did not lend themselves well to individual portraits (the spaces were horizontal and smaller).

The plus side is that the portraits will be one of the first things to catch the eye upon entering the home. If I leave business cards with her, maybe she will do as her friend and my previous client did - and pass them out to interested parties.

[John Crowther]

A quick thought, and perhaps something to think about (and hopefully not confuse the issue), the low angle perspective you're talking about was common in Renaissance painting, especially in large altar pieces. In Italian the term in "da basso in su." Think Tiepolo.

John C.

[Julie Deane]

Interesting, John. I like Tiepollo, but these are kids I'm doing. No high drama, so to speak.