Introduction to Drawing - Week 4

This Monday will be the fourth evening of ‘Introduction to Drawing’, a series of 5 workshops with Adult Learning Shetland.

Last week, we looked at volume and spatial depth in drawing. This gave us insight into how objects sit in space, and how to convey this through several very simple (but very effective) drawing techniques.

This week, we’ll be advancing our understanding of pictorial depth even further - we’ll be learning about perspective.

The system of ‘linear perspective’ has been used in Western-European art since the Renaissance. It follows a set of rules in order to construct a representation of three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional surface of the paper. It has become some dominant however, it is easy to forget that although perspective seems to closely imitate how we see the world, it is still an artificial construct , a “representational tool that…approximates human vision”[1].

By learning how to draw with perspective this week, we’ll reveal how it is an incredibly useful system (as well as explore some of its limitations). We’ll also learn about the expressive power of perspective - how manipulating it can add to the drama and meaning of our drawings.

Here is just one exercise we’ll be trying:

SINGLE POINT PERSPECTIVE

Turn your sketch books to horizon. Draw a horizontal line half way up your page. This is your horizon line, or where the sea meets the sky. It also corresponds to your eye level. Half way along this line draw a dot - this is your vanishing point.

Draw a square above or below your line. From each corner of your square, draw a line which joins to the vanishing point. These are the guiding lines for the receding edges of your cube.

Finally, draw in the vertical back edges of your cube (we’re doing this by eye for now, though there are more advanced ways of completing this stage).

You should now have a cube drawn in perspective. You can use this method both above and below the horizon line (see image).

[1] ZELL, Mo. 2008. The Architectural Drawing Course. London: Thames and Hudson.