Drawing and Painting the Landscape – The Figure in the Landscape

Brixham Boat
Watercolour and Conté
Moleskine A4 Watercolour Album
297mm x 210mm (11.69" x 8.27")

Yes, we can all see it is a boat, not a figure.

Lesson 10 of Drawing and Painting the Landscape by Philip Tyler is the last lesson in the chapter about perspective. The lesson is called The Figure in the Landscape, but it also deals with the impact of perspective on reflections and shadows, distortion and the cone of vision, aerial perspective, Cezanne? and boats.

Waiting for the Dhoni
Watercolour on Paper
190mm x 280mm (11" x 5.5")

Philip starts the lesson by stating that people give scale to a landscape and therefore it is important to understand how to draw them in proportion. He observes:

• Figures (like everything else) recede to the horizon 
• Most people are about the same height, so on flat ground most people's eye level will be close to the horizon line (the eye level of the artist – and the viewer).

The painting of Elaine in the Maldives isn't flattering, but illustrates these ideas. Elaine's head is slightly below the horizon because we are both standing on the flat pier and Elaine is slightly shorter than me. The top of the boat is also close to the horizon because its canopy is at about head height. If Elaine was to walk along the pier away from me, she would appear smaller, the top of her head would stay at about the same level, so her feet would move up the page. Releasing the same holds true for the (approximately person high boat) boat was an important revelation for me.

Small, Far Away

I've spent far too long playing with Philip's advice to initially think about a boat as a box. I will come back to perspective, but for now I am moving on.