Drawing and Painting the Landscape – Simple Perspective

Books in Perspective
Simple Perspective - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
June 2019
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
18.5cm x 21.5cm (7.25" x 8.5")

Chapter 3 of Drawing and Painting the Landscape by Philip Tyler is about perspective. He starts the chapter by offering some pragmatic advice:

Linear perspective gives you an understanding of how objects behave in space. It is not a set of hard and fast rules that have to be adhered to, but a little bit of knowledge will go a long way and will certainly help you create a convincing depth in your landscapes, and help clarify how man-made objects, like buildings, recede and converge, making them seem more three-dimensional.

Lesson 7 provides some exercises on simple perspective. It begins with a diagram of a road in single point perspective with a line of equally spaced lampposts running off into the distance. This diagram illustrates a horizon line, a single vanishing point, and how to equally space objects in perspective.

Single Point Perspective
Simple Perspective - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
June 2019
Graphpite Pencil
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 18.5cm (8.5" x 7.25")

Philip then uses photos of piles of books to illustrate multiple vanishing points on the same horizon line and the impact when the books are not lying flat on the table.

My sketch reminded me of the setup from one of Liz Steel's Sketching Now - Foundations exercises (see May 2016 Sketches and Welcome Back)

I’m pretty pleased with the painting in this sketch, but I have a tendency to overwork. I’ve just started taking Liz’s SketchingNow Watercolour. During the use the course, I’m hoping to learn techniques and strategies to get the effects I want more consistently.

Drawing and Painting the Landscape – Contoured Landscape

Contoured Landscape - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
May 2019
Graphite pencil, watercolour pencil, conte stick on brown paper
24cm x 13.5cm (9.5" x 5.25")

In Drawing and Painting the Landscape, Philip Tyler observes that contour lines describe the structure of the landscape. He asks us to imagine a net stretched over the land and to visualise how the net distorts as it moves over the shapes and planes of the landscape – by drawing the contours, we reveal the landscape.

Lesson 6 contains an exercise to clarify the concept. Philip suggests drawing a grid on a piece of paper, "scrunching" the paper to create a hilly landscape, lighting the paper dramatically and then drawing it.

Keys to Drawing with Imagination – Mirror Imaging

Enjoying the Weather
Ink and Watercolour on Paper
23cm x 29.5cm (9" x 11.5")

Exercise 12 from Keys to Drawing with Imagination by Bert Dodson involves making a drawing of an interestingly shaped object and then drawing its mirror image aligned so the 2 images are touching to make a single symmetrical shape. The mind can read patterns and interpretations into the new shape. In Bert’s example, a crumpled shirt becomes two desert nomads in conversation.

I made a drawing of a miniature dog sculpture by Joanne Cooke. I call the sculpture Salty the Sea Dog. It is about 9cm high and sits on my computer desk. Weirdly, it looks a lot like Doris with her summer haircut.

Salty the Sea Dog
Ink on Paper
21cm x 29.7cm (8.3" x 11.7")

I couldn’t find an inspiring way to create a reflected shape. I suspect the exercise works better with less recognisable objects such as crumpled clothing. This gives the imagination more room to interpret an abstract shape – instead of immediately identifying two adjoining images of the same dog -and then moving on to something more interesting.

I abandoned the instructions for the exercise and drew Salty sitting in a puddle – which is a pastime Doris enjoys.