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.