Transformations

I recently discussed, in a lesson, how artists (particularly in the past) will use grids to ensure that landscapes are correctly transferred to canvas. Effectively the grid is used to carry out a fractional enlargement. The following stills from the film 'A Draughtsman's Contract' show how such a grid might be used.

The painter, or in this case draughtsman, looks through the grid and transfers the information to a similar grid on their canvas. It can be seen in the above image that the right hand edge of the obelisk is situated centrally in the picture with it's point just below the top of the frame. This makes it easier for the artist to rescale the image.