Scale

In both of these sketches, a human conveniently
walked by just as I was looking around for something to indicate scale.

Every now and then, someone will see a sketch I’ve made of a tree, for example, and ask why I put a car in next to it: Did I have to put the car in to make it an official “urban” sketch? I think most subjects are more interesting when their context is clear – that’s usually where the story is (I wrote a post about context about a year ago). But often the context has an even more important role: It provides scale.

Without humans climbing all over him, the size of the
Fremont Troll would be difficult to gauge in this sketch.

Many times, the story of an urban tree is how big it is – its wide crown providing shade; its powerful roots buckling the sidewalk; its height and fullness growing in the way of power lines. Without a car, house, or human next to it for scale, it could be a stalk of broccoli. Showing context that humans identify with in terms of size is important for both the story and scale.

Although I’ve shown the full sketches in previous posts, I’ve clipped them here to emphasize the objects I’ve included for scale. I’ve added a few comments in the cutlines.

Cars are the easiest (and most ubiquitous) way to indicate the relative size of a tree.

Without these e-scooters and the tree for scale, how big is the rock?

This page shows how I taught myself what I needed. I sketched the dog at right first. Then I realized that I had to label it "tiny dog" because it's not apparent in the sketch. But why use words when I can show it? I sketched it again at left, this time with its attached human.