I took a perspective sketching workshop last weekend and loved it. The instructor, Stephanie Bower, was so clear and full of good examples and tips that I actually had several "aha" moments in being able to "see" vanishing points and angles. She was great! She also offers a really good class on Craftsy.com (and they never expire so you can watch it over and over) which hits the high points covered in her in-person class. I highly recommend it.
So, we primarily focused on one point perspective in the class. After a morning of instruction and practice, we went "out into the world" and sketched in the atrium at Pike Place Market. I was actually able to create something in perspective - hooray!
Stephanie has broken down the beginning steps of a perspective drawing to three things: define the main shape (usually a square or rectangle), establish your horizon or eye level, find the vanishing point. After doing those 3 things, I got my 2 walls in perspective (ignore my funky looking people). (see my vanishing point pretty much right in the middle, lower half?)
The 2nd day of the workshop was about adding watercolor to a sketch to bring it to life - then we went out into the market again and sketched during the afternoon. This was much harder - there were lots of people milling about in and out of view and each of us picked our own area to draw. I picked this hallway:
That's a store front and restaurant entrance on the right, elevators on the left. This took me forever, but I'm pleased that I was able to complete it. The white space in the center is actually open to the outside and I had trouble with that, so left it blank for now.
So, we primarily focused on one point perspective in the class. After a morning of instruction and practice, we went "out into the world" and sketched in the atrium at Pike Place Market. I was actually able to create something in perspective - hooray!
Stephanie has broken down the beginning steps of a perspective drawing to three things: define the main shape (usually a square or rectangle), establish your horizon or eye level, find the vanishing point. After doing those 3 things, I got my 2 walls in perspective (ignore my funky looking people). (see my vanishing point pretty much right in the middle, lower half?)
Stephanie giving class demo
The 2nd day of the workshop was about adding watercolor to a sketch to bring it to life - then we went out into the market again and sketched during the afternoon. This was much harder - there were lots of people milling about in and out of view and each of us picked our own area to draw. I picked this hallway:
Stephanie demos watercolor techniques.
Here's my class watercolor efforts - we painted from a slide.....it's always so interesting to see how people interpret the same information so differently!
If you're in the Seattle area and interested in learning or improving perspective drawing, I highly recommend Stephanie's class. Or, take her online class - it's also REALLY good and this comes from a chronic failure at understanding anything about perspective!
Bravo! Your drawings are great.
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