Perspective
Technical Directive 29 October 2004 Perspective PERSPECTIVE MEANS CREATING ILLUSIONS OF DEPTH ON A FLAT SURFACE. Portraying lifelike illusions is our main challenge. But you can’t measure depth by observation as you can height and width. You can only estimate how deep something is. For illusions of depth, we must rely completely on tricks. Several [...]
Slanted Lines
Technical Directive 30 October 2004 Slanted Lines Drawing any straight-edged object in perspective is easy when you know how to make a line slant correctly. Notice that the slanted lines of the cube below make it appear to have depth. Notice also, if the lines on each side were made long enough, they would meet. [...]
Plumb Line
Technical Directive 25 October 2004 Plumb Line A plumb line is a string with a weight at the end. Hold the string in one hand and steady the weight with the other. You now have a perfectly vertical line along which to sight different parts on the subject and see how they align. Simply shift [...]
Negative Space
Technical Directive 22 October 2004 Negative Space Negative space is the space around any part of an object. It’s the space on the other side of a line enclosing a shape. It’s where the object isn’t. Place your attention on an area of negative space. Notice it has a shape of its own. much to [...]
Refining a Drawing
Technical Directive 22 October 2004 Refining a Drawing There are two ways to advance a work: CONTINUE TO DRAW—OR—ADJUST WHAT YOU HAVE. Continuing to Draw An artist has complete freedom to work anywhere at any time. But that doesn’t mean you can act like a kid in a candy store with no one behind the [...]
Key Elements
Technical Directive 21 October 2004 Key Elements Let’s take building accuracy into a drawing to an even higher level. You can introduce another stage after your rough sketch. Carefully arrange certain KEY ELEMENTS to serve as stepping stones for positioning parts of your drawing accurately. These key elements include certain FLOWS. Flows A flow expresses [...]
Stay in Control
Technical Directive 28 October 2004 Stay in Control A word of advice: CONTROL YOUR WORK OR IT WILL CONTROL YOU! To stay in control, work with one of The Three Basic Principles each time you observe. For instance, decide to work from large to small or to relate; then observe the subject. This is an [...]