Plein Air painting part 2

The previous post on my plein air painting poses a really interesting problem with computer technology. Seen from the point of view of the large screen on my home computer and in real life from the point of view of approximately 5 - 10 feet away, it's a rather abstract scene, but on my web book and from a much further distance it looks almost photographic. Not a terrible thing I suppose but I like it far better with the more impressionistic feel of the closer viewpoint.

This is a point that has been brought up in art classes, I have often reminded students that no one will probably ever look as up-close at their work as they are. They need to step away at a comfortable viewing distance occasionally to see what their audience will see. It's tempting to ignore that the same rule is true when it comes to computer technology, that what you see from the original at a comfortable viewing distance will translate much the same online. When the original image is small, there won't be much distortion, but as you start getting into images that are much larger than the screen, the distortion caused by shrinking can change the entire feel of the piece.