Volume III: Perspective

Sketchbook Saga - Volume III: Perspective

"It's all about the angles." This was the most common phrase I heard when I was working in the photography industry. And it truly is "all about the angles." Anyone can capture an image, but when you take a picture in a way the audience hasn't seen the subject before, it evokes emotion and drives a greater appreciation. 

When learning perspective this was my grounding. The goal in drawing from different angles is to exaggerate one section or to put emphasis on it. An artist can draw the audience's eye to whichever part of the drawing they want to if they know how to execute it correctly. 

The most common, and challenging form I see is something called foreshortening. Most know that the eye perceives smaller objects as farther away. But in drawing there isn't a large canvas to work with like your field of view. traditionally you get an 11.5 x 6.5in piece of paper to show the distance between different portions of your drawing. This means you have to quickly shrink the subject to show accurate distance. This form of drawing is a more challenging form of perspective, but it still applies to normal perspective.

Day One: 

When learning a new skill, day one is often the hardest. Being due to the lack of knowledge and repetition. Then, as you progress, it gets easier. This was not the case for this week. Day one was in fact the easiest out of the days. The only part of the drawing I struggled with was the lower half of the left figure, and the left-hand's positioning of the right.

Day Two:

Day two was interesting. I really struggled with the proportions of the back and chest, making the right character much too blocky. The most noticeable mistake I observed in post analysis is of the lats (latissimus dorsi); they are too long. The lats should be located just below your shoulder blades and taper in as they meet your hips. The character's do not taper as they descend. 

Also, in the left figure I see two mistakes in the anatomy. One, there is a line near the armpit of the right arm connecting the back and the tricep as if it is a lat, but the structure of the lines would determine it to be more of an oddly shaped chest. 

Two, the figure has two left hands. I am not sure how I didn't notice this when I was drawing but once you see it you can't unsee it. 

The hands on the top of the drawing were not terrible, but I would just wave them off as a doodle rather than critiquing them. Overall, I think the sketch went okay. I like the structure that I was going for, but it was not executed well. 

Day Three:

Day three was interesting because it is two separate drawings interacting together. The right character is completely separate from the left, but they are both gazing at the bird in curiosity. The right character was relatively easy to get right while the left took a long time to find the proportions. I am still learning to draw female characters, but this was a step in the right direction. 

Day Four:

I really enjoyed day four. It was a new way of drawing for me, and it went as well as I could have hoped. Using the box figures helped to break down the characters into basic shapes--as I have been taught throughout this experiment. 

The sketch portrays some emotion that most of my other ones do not. You can look at it in many different ways, making assumptions as to what is going on--that is why I like this one quite a bit. 

Day Five:

Day five was not as drastic as I had hoped it would be--being my final drawing in the series. However, the drawing itself does a good job of portraying foreshortening. I also think that the hands of the drawing are one of my best yet. It is a very odd position to put your hands in, and I think I executed it well. 

So, although the drawing isn't all I had hoped, it is a solid piece that I can say wraps up the last volume well.

Final Closure:

As I close the series, I would like to share my two cents. I have had a lot of fun learning different styles of drawing. It has drawn me back to a childhood fascination and I know I will continue to delve into different mediums. 

I can confidently say my skills have improved from the start to the end of the series. Maybe one day I will truly harness my own style and incorporate it into a living. By any means, it has given me a lot to think about in my future field of work and it has done the one thing I hoped it would: improve my creative thinking. 

I have had to make decisions to evoke emotion but also to practice my skills while keeping it fun. I am very pleased that the obligation to draw didn't take away from the enjoyment of it. We will see how my creativity flourishes in the future, definitely spreading into different mediums. This is just one more to add to the pile...