A viewfinder is used to isolate a potential picture from the landscape around you, to serve as the subject of your painting. Using a viewfinder makes it a lot easier for you to choose the exact landscape portion that you wish to paint. You can use the viewfinder to shape your landscape horizontally or vertically - this depends entirely on your subject and what you are looking for.
1Purchase or make a viewfinder.Ad
2Look through your viewfinder. Note what you can see at each of the corners. Flick your eyes from corner to corner to corner and look carefully, so that when you take the viewfinder down, you can still see the parameter of the image that you will be working on in your mind's eye.
3Roughly draw the same proportions as the aperture of the viewfinder on your sketchbook paper.
4Divide the space into quarters. Quarter it vertically and horizontally, so that it is split in half both ways. This breaks down the complexity of the image that is in front of you into four smaller elements that are going to be easier to control.
5Start from the bottom right quarter. This is an information gathering exercise; you are making a map from observation of what will be the painting. Think in terms of the design, the pattern and the overall composition. This step gives you thinking time before you set about the process of painting and transferring the image to the painting surface.Ad
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Sources and Citations
- VideoJug A video of using a viewfinder. Original source of article. Shared with permission and appreciation.