The subject of scale is one that has always come up continually for me personally with my own drawing in one way or another. It’s something well worth having a good understanding of as it can and should affect everything you draw and the way you prepare for and go about it.
Scale of Subject
I suppose the most obvious and easily understood meaning of scale is relative size. When an idea coalesces in your mind for an artwork it doesn’t usually end up on the paper exactly as your mind’s eye first sees it but goes through a compositional developmental stage where you turn it over and over for a while working out how you are going to actually express it. For example you might discover a sudden hankering to draw roses. The initial thought might be of a single rose Or you may think maybe a few roses would suit your idea better. Or a whole bunch. How about adding a few of the leaves and branches in? Hey, I could draw a whole rose bush. I wonder what a whole rose garden would be like to draw? Or the whole farm? There’s always two ways to slide on a sliding scale though. To go back to the single rose as a starting point you might even let the edges of the paper crop the rose itself so the subject itself is the entire and make that an interesting composition in itself or even go so far as to just draw one petal or small part of rose with all its subtle textures and tones inspiring a more abstract impression based on the original subject. Maybe with a water drop on the petal to give a clue as to what it is. Hmm, maybe the water drop itself could be the subject with the convex reflection of other roses or the larger world in it. You get the idea anyway, some of these concepts are a bit extreme but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t do it if you thought it would make an effective artwork and express the artistic idea that started your brain a’itching in the first place. The rose thing is just an example of course, consideration of this kind of subjective scale can (and should) be applied to pretty much everything.
