Faces - a morning well spent

So. If you happen to get a speeding ticket .... spending a day in traffic court can be time well spent. 

Sigh. We took the waaaaay back country roads on a way from a vacation and even though I was actually trying to stay within the speed limit (52 in a 55mph zone) I somehow missed the sign in front of the one mile stretch that was 35mph. 

So I had my sketchbook with me and while waiting my turn I pulled out my pencil.

I sat in front so all I had to draw was the lawyers and the officers.

Of course - one's hand is always there to draw. I was trying to be circumspect but one of the officers (I think it might even have been the one who pulled me over) saw me and leaned over when he walked by and told me he wanted to see it when I was done.

We weren't allowed phones so I couldn't take a picture which is too bad - the two pictures I tore out and gave to the officer and the bailiff were much better than these. I had plenty of time to work on those two and they held still the longest. The officer knew I was drawing him so I think he held still on purpose. After I gave him the drawing he told me he had told the judge to be nice to me. (He was.)

Tutorial: Creating Depth and Space pt2 Perspective

Photo by Lyric Kinard

Last week I talked a little bit about using the placement and sizes of shapes to create the illusion depth and space on a flat surface. Next week I'll talk about value and detail.

Church of Le Sacré-Coeur by Maruice Utrillo

PERSPECTIVE is another device that is used to create the illusion of depth and space in a two dimensional plane. Parallel lines in the artwork will appear to converge at a vanishing point. The basic technique involves choosing a point, usually at the horizon line, sometimes within the frame of the work, sometimes outside of it... and drawing your lines  to meet at that point.

Dresden

Photo by Lyric Kinard

The lines of perspective are most easily seen in architectural landscapes.  Take a piece of tracing paper or even just your finger and trace the lines of the walkways, the streets, the buildings. They will all converge at a vanishing point.

This perspective study by Leonardo DaVinci shows how complex and technical perspective drawing can be. I spent quite a bit of time back in school learning to draft architectural perspectives.

Leonardo DaVinci

Remember too, that it can also be VERY simple! Simply draw a horizon line, choose a vanishing point, create some lines going towards that point and add your shapes within it. I'd love to see your perspective sketches in the flickr group!

I highly recommend looking up “perspective” in your library's subject database and studying a few books on the techniques used to create it. They range from simple to complex and the technique will be a valuable tool to have at your disposal.

Tutorial: Creating Depth and Space pt1

I love to look down a path. I wonder about the mystery of what lies just beyond my view. Creating that illusion of depth, the feeling of walking into another world through a sketch or painting or any two dimensional artwork is not as hard as it might appear.

Photo by Julia Wade

Think for a moment about the three dimensional world we live in. Every day we look out a window into the distance or move through the space of our home. As we try to interpret what we see and experience in a piece of art, there are many techniques that help us to create the illusion of depth in space on a flat surface.

Pathways by Lyric Kinard

Take a look at this tiny quilt.  Even though each piece of fabric representing a tree becomes smaller, our mind interprets it as a line of similarly sized trees receding into the distant landscape. The tree shapes also overlap one another and as the path recedes the trees are placed farther up within the frame of the work.  

The simplest devices to show depth are SIZE, OVERLAP and VERTICAL PLACEMENT. The closer an object is to us the larger it appears so it stands to reason that if you have similar elements and you increase their size, the larger ones will appear to come forward. 

See? Not so hard. Check back here next week for a little tutorial on perspective and vanishing points.