Super Models

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Models can be very useful tools when painting in the studio for understanding how light moves on forms. As part of recreating with our studio students, our recent trip to Venice, we made a small model gondola in preparation for a larger painting of gondolas on the Grand Canal. Photographs and sketches, being two-dimensional, can only provide so much information. We wanted to understand the intricacies of how direct light, reflected light and shadows change as the angle of our model is changed on the still life table—something impossible to do with the life-size boat. Modeling allows for the consideration of nearly unlimited possibilities in position and lighting. Perhaps more important, it also provides an opportunity to play with perspective and get it right.

Our simple model reminded us of the more complex models that Thomas Hart Benton created when working on his monumental mural paintings. It is no simple matter to get realistic lighting and cast shadows across a large group of f…