Week 8

This week I want to put into practice the theory I have been looking at over the last few weeks and attempt to make perspective peices from scratch.

For my first study I took one of my example pieces from week 1 - A digitally created image made in 2017 when I was 13. This is so I I have some sort of setting to work with and so I can compare my improvement.

Using the old image was handy as I knew I needed to include a fire place, some cushions, a book and a person. I could change the details to help with the practice but I didn't have to worry about thinking about the kind of setting since that's not the part I'm focusing on. I think the piece came out well. When it comes to the vertical distortion on the right hand side I probably should of have curved it out more right instead of left, maybe a light grid could have helped guide me there. I could use a lot of the mirroring, dividing and multiplying techniques on the fire place. A small detail that bugs me is the right curve at the top of the fire place isn't angled down enough to meet the perspective converging point. Otherwise I am quite happy. People in perspective is still a weakness, characters sitting down are also a lot harder to get looking right in general for me.

Thumbnails also really helped me here to figure out what perspective I should place my environment without having to fully commit it to the final piece, this way I can find the best angle to take before staring.

In this weeks life drawing I decided partway through that this could be a good way to study the figure in perspective. In hindsight, looking back on these it would have been better for me to break down the form more into geometric shapes to really understand how they're angled in perspective. Otherwise most if the practices mostly just established the horizon line in relation to my eye level.

For practice I decided to attempt breaking down an image with a figure. The curving perspective I exaggerated didn't look too bad in the picture but I drew the head of the character too high and only realised too late. Along with the cats head looking odd. It wasn't going well for this. I wondered if I'd be better off practicing in a medium I can erase in. Scott Robinson suggest a pen so you don't rub out important lines so it maybe an idea to diversify my medium, not abandoning the pen but also trying some pencil mediums as well.

PROKOPRNKO, Stan. 2023. Drawing perspective with intuition, Available at:

https://youtube.com/shorts/wN7Sis5Co68?si=TsvhtqVfr4DjHeJR

In this short video I was recommended, an Art youtuber who frequently interviews industry and skilled artists sums that perspective artists develop good intuition for their work by drawing a lot of what's around them in life.

With my next class I used the time to draw some of the people around me as it was a good opportunity to draw figures that would maintain similar positions for long times.

I did think it was a helpful exercise that reminded me of some of the weight and angles of a form. While not perfect in technical perspective it does have a better element of realism compared to the first piece of this week.