Saturday 1 May 2010




(Home and able to resume work on course.)



Course work: As an overview of previous work, and an introduction to the next section, I took the gate in my foreground-midground-background drawing, and projected its lines with the computer, finding, as expected, that they did not “vanish” at the same point. Then I added lines in red, and in blue, with the computer to show two possible vanishing points. I think the blue set are drawn more correctly and would produce the better drawing. This was a useful exercise, and can be done very quickly with the digital camera and the computer.

Because of structural factors, including high ceilings, it is difficult to find a doorway in my house thorough which one can see receding lines of floor and ceiling. For this reason, I did a limited rough sketch down the hallway, including only the major features, but omitting moldings, details, and tone, using a graphite pencil. The hall carpet requested by the instructions was included, represented as a quadrilateral shape on the floor. Since the right wall of the hall is shorter than the left, I had to allow for this. I drew in the eye level with a green colored pencil. Using a red colored pencil, I drew in the projections of my lines, and ended up with two distinct “vanishing points.” The vanishing point for the floor and the carpet was entirely incorrect, lying on (or above) the ceiling about four feet in front of the end wall, and several feet above the eye level, although the lines did converge in a relatively small area. The lines from the upper part of each wall and the top of each door were surprisingly close to the eye level and the actual vanishing point. I then took a blue colored pencil and redrew the lines in the correct position; the bottom of each wall and the margins of the hall carpet were most strongly affected by this. It is clear that I need more work on exercises of this sort.

Searching about, I found a spot where one can look through two doors at a third, with additional doorways on each side. Asymmetry of construction still produces some visual confusion. I used the same sketching methodology as above (black lines for structure, green for eye level, red for projected construction lines, blue for corrected construction lines). Three of my four major black structural lines projected reasonably near the vanishing point: one of the wall-base lines, and both of the door top lines wandered off by themselves.

Reading:



Rose-Marie & Ranier Hagen What Great Paintings Say (Vol. 2)

Taschen, Köln, 2005

Pp 476-487



Personal sketchbook work: Some ripening plums. Leaves are highly variable in size, as shown, with some variability in shape, and very slightly serrate edges. At present, the plums are about 2 cm in diameter, but will get a good bit larger.

Total time: 1 hour 16 minutes