Thursday, June 25, 2009

Rear View Tip

Here’s a handy way to get a fresh look at a painting. For just a few dollars at an auto part store you can get one of these stick-on convex mirrors.

They help you see your work in a new way because they both reverse and miniaturize your composition, making it immediately clear if you’re getting the Big Statement right.

Remember: objects in mirror are closer than they appear!

Related GJ post on getting a fresh eye and Lorrain mirrors.

7 comments:

Richard said...

Great idea. Small and portable. How does it compare to reducing lens?
Richard

Erik Bongers said...

Great idea indeed.

And the '...closer than they appear' warning brings back memories from the Hertz rental cars I slid across a snow covered NJ turnpike hitting a few coin collection baskets on the way to get me back in the right direction.

Unknown said...

James,

I don't know what I would do without a small mirror. It is such s great tool.

Oscar Baechler said...

Tis an essential design tool in Photoshop as well. Or rather, setting a hotkey for "reverse document horizontal."

C B Sorge said...

Clever! It solves the problem of having large pieces be hard to lug to a mirror to view them, or, for college going kids like myself, easier to move with from place to place in a cramped dorm or whever, unlike large panes of brittle glass.

Dave said...

Thats a great idea why didn't we think of that years ago; one could go to a used car lot and get all kinds of mirror stuff––––and Jim I love your Blog––Lee Crabb

James Gurney said...

Thanks, Dave...and for those who may wonder, Dave was the model for the character Lee Crabb in the Dinotopia books: See GJ post about the Real Lee Crabb