Proportion

Proportion

The relationship between different elements within a composition, based on their size.

Proportion is important when striving for realism in drawing or painting, as incorrect proportions can lead to a less lifelike appearance.

Moreover, artists can use proportion intentionally to convey various effects. By manipulating proportions, artists can evoke feelings of strength, weakness, humour, mystery, and more. Proportions can be exaggerated to highlight specific elements or meanings within a scene. For instance, caricature artists distort proportions to create stylised and expressive depictions of their subjects.

12 results found for "Proportion"

video

Lisa Yuskavage

These magnificently smutty pin-ups are the work of a legend of contemporary painting, Lisa Yuskavage. Born in 1962 in Philadelphia to an Irish working class family, Lisa turns ‘wrongness’ into salacious works of art that give Classical painting a run for its money.

Lisa Yuskavage
essay

Barbie Pink

Barbie is everywhere, but what's pink got to do with it?

Barbie Pink
essay

The Guerrilla Girls: Four Decades of Disruption

From the streets to the Supreme Court, the punk feminist art collective are still fighting for social justice in the art world and beyond.

The Guerrilla Girls: Four Decades of Disruption
video

JR: Miniature Giants

Installations by JR are some of the most viewed artworks in the world. Ahead of our first collaboration, we visited the legendary photographer in Paris to talk about scale, scaffolding, the ever-growing ambition of his public projects and why he wants to stay naïve forever.

JR: Miniature Giants
article

Sensory Inspiration

The origin story for a new collaboration with New York legend José Parlá got us thinking about some of the unexpected places where artists find their art.

Sensory Inspiration
Artist

Kpe Innocent

Kpe Innocent (he/him) was born in Accra, Ghana in 1994. He continues to live and work in the city.

Kpe Innocent
Artist

Larry Bell

Larry Bell (he/him) was born in 1939 in Chicago, Illinois. He is based in Taos, New Mexico where he currently works. He also has a studio on Venice Beach, California.

Larry Bell
Artist

Clayton Schiff

Clayton Schiff (he/him) was born in 1987 in New York, United States, where he continues to live and work.

Clayton Schiff
Artist

Aubrey Levinthal

Aubrey Levinthal was born in 1986 in Philadelphia, USA, where she continues to live and work.

Aubrey Levinthal
Artist

Khari Turner

Khari Turner (he/him) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1991, and now lives and works in New York.

Khari Turner
Print

TORO!

Bony Ramirez lifts the bullfighter’s muleta to an unexpected scene.In TORO! a horned bull is ensconced in red fabrics of all shades, but is completely at peace lounging next to a young girl. In each print Bony hand-paints a different hairstyle and facial expression on the child. Despite the title’s reference to bullfighting, the image is of harmony and mutual recognition. The artwork challenges colonial legacies in Bony’s homeland, the Dominican Republic. Both bodies, animal and human, are warped into anatomical impossibilities. While their proportions call to mind artists like Picasso and Francis Bacon, their body language references Manet’s Olympia (1863). Bony borrows from the European artistic canon to subvert the narrative of savage native and civilised coloniser.

TORO!
Studio works

Big Steps

In Big Steps, KPE Innocent contemplates the chasm between decision and action: faith. The foot of a strangely-proportioned figure is raised high behind them – frozen mid stride. A single line defines what lies behind, but not what lies ahead.Studio Works is a series of original artworks by emerging artists from across the globe.

Big Steps

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Parra's studio, with Parra at the centre, his back to the camera as he works on the large painting takes centre stage, showing a faceless blue woman in a striped dress, painted in red, purple, blue and teal. The studio is full of brightly coloured paints, with a large window on the right and a patterned rug across the floor under the painting.