Still Life Tasks: Perspective Drawing

13th April 2017

Task 3 and 4 both involve still life drawing. Being able to draw in perspective is an important aspect of drawing to understand.

Leonardo Da Vinci said of perspective:

Perspective is to painting what the bridle is to the horse, the rudder to a ship.

Many artists though do make the point that perspective is merely a tool and it depends on what final effect you are going for. The Pop Art artist Roy Lichtenstein, who disliked certain rules said,

People think one-point and two-point perspective is how the world actually looks, but of course, it isn’t. It’s a convention.

Either way, it is something that should be practiced and understood 🙂

The meaning of perspective used in art involves creating an appearance of depth. This emphasis on distance stems from it being a difficult and impressive effect to achieve, especially upon paper that is completely flat. Here we are attempting to convey a sense of reality with space and depth on something which has none.

I will be the first to admit that learning and practicing linear perspective is a little bit like eating your veggies when you are a kid. You aren’t sure about them even though you know they are good for you but, in the end, you learn to love them. But what is really worth remembering about perspective drawing is that if you know the basics, you’ve got all the capabilities of a 3D drawing in your hands. That’s why understanding linear perspective is so important for artists, beginners included.

Linear perspective revolutionised the way artists perceived and incorporated spatial depth in their work. Established in solid, mathematical terms in the 15th century, linear perspective creates the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.

To create effective linear perspective, artists establish a horizon line, a vanishing point on that line, and multiple orthogonal, or vanishing, lines. The horizon line is a horizontal line that runs across the paper or canvas to represent the viewer’s eye level and delineates the sky meeting the ground. The orthogonal lines, which distort objects by foreshortening them, create the optical illusion that objects grow smaller and closer together as they get farther away. These imaginary lines recede on the paper to meet at one point on the horizon called the vanishing point.

The difference between one-point perspective and two-point perspective is the number of vanishing points and where they are placed on the horizon line.

Here is a resource to support you with developing this technique:

Perspective

My Live Session which quickly demonstrates how to create both One & Two Point Perspectives 🙂

It might just help you with adjusting those funny angles in your artwork and allowing you to see some extra fundamentals in observational drawing 🙂

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Why not have a go at this and post your artwork for me to see. Maybe I or the community can offer support, encouragement and helpful feedback. – share your work on TWITTER and INSTAGRAM – POST using our hashtag #ONLINECOLLEGEART

Task 4: Still Life Using Graphite

12th April 2017

Back to graphite we go…

So we are beginning to bring together all of the skills we have learned so far. We will soon be moving away from our tonal work so let’s try another Still Life drawing but this time with our graphite pencils.

Things we have covered so far:

Observation Skills- right side of the brain
Tonal Scale & Universal forms
Charcoal Techniques
Composition Considerations

Now we need graphite techniques to complete our skills in observational drawing.

You can use similar skills developed using charcoal for your graphite drawing, such as using a kneaded eraser to help with highlights. Do what you feel is right for you whilst applying the full tonal range to your drawing.

The same composition techniques we have discussed will apply and you should refer back to your universal forms to remind yourself of the different highlights and shadows. This time it should be easier as you will have the objects in front of you; if your light is good (natural light by a window) and your choice of objects is good (range of sizes, forms, textures) then you should be finding it easier to observe and create successful observational drawings.

Doing some different mark making exercises will also help you to decide on your style. It will also develop your understanding and control of using a graphite pencil in different ways. We have looked at adding tone to our shapes in a Sfumato sort of way so far, but there are many others that might suit you better and give a different character to your work.

Check out this resource to help you:

Mark Making

Have fun and remember to share your work for friendly feedback to support your progress – Join our Facebook Group for LIVE lessons and a friendly art community – see you there 🙂

Here is the video link to my FB Live Mark Making Lesson

Task 3: Universal Forms in Charcoal Time Lapse

4th April 2017

Watch the time lapse video to see how to add simple shading and tone to each of the universal forms using charcoal.

How it is done:

I like to sketch the outlines on top of a charcoal base. Then using a kneaded eraser take out the main areas of highlights. Using a medium compressed charcoal stick I then add the shadows and darker areas-blending into the mid-tones. Finally, as my paper was a mid tone and not white, I then used white charcoal/chalk to add the brightest highlights, taking the time to blend them together to capture the form of each shape. You can then refine your drawing with charcoal pencils or the sharper edges of a hard compressed charcoal stick to refine edges of shapes and darken shadow. Adding shadow and highlights around the image and forms gives the forms more depth.

Have a go!

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Sketchbook Ideas

17th March 2017

When starting out on an Art & Design course it is hard to know what your sketchbook ‘should’ look like. There is no real style other than ‘your’ style!

Art projects that are based on existing artists, which interest you, usually are more exciting because you are passionate about the subject you are studying. You can then interpret those artists work in your own way.

Take a look through this gallery to see how students have presented their artist study work.

Try producing your own creative sketchbook pages by copying artists work and seeing what inspires you. Take time to think about the details; every image placement, font styles for titles and headings, use of media… research into the artist and find out more about their style and their technique-learn what you can and apply it to your own work!

Task 1: Right side of the Brain

14th March 2017

Learning to Draw- Task 1
You have two brains: a left and a right. Modern brain scientists now know that your left brain is your verbal and rational brain; it thinks serially and reduces its thoughts to numbers, letters and words…
Your right brain is your nonverbal and intuitive brain; it thinks in patterns, or pictures, composed of ‘whole things,’ and does not comprehend reductions, either numbers, letters, or words.

Getting your right side of the brain working is as simple as drawing upside down! The purpose of this kind of practice is to force your left (thinking) side of the brain to give up identifying what you draw…so let’s have a go. Here is a document to practice your observation-draw it upside down

Share your work with our community and our qualified tutors will feedback on your work!

1- upside down drawing

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