Exercise Angular perspective

Aim of the exercise: To make a line drawing of a building or several buildings seen corner-on. Use every possible vertical or horizontal reference to ensure that receding lines are drawn at the correct angles. When completed draw in eye level and extend receding lines to it. In this drawing there will many vanishing points and most of them will be off the paper.

What I experienced: Completed 07/08/13. I used my A3 sketchbook again and once again used the car as a mobile studio, parking up so that I could see the houses to draw, feeling less conspicuous that way. Once again I drew in pencil and then went over in pen to sharpen up, define which was the more correct line and try and get some lines in more accurately. This drawing once again took a long time, coming up to 3 hours which includes observing time in that (of which there was quite a lot). I didn’t use a ruler and tried to draw from just sight and continual checking of one thing against another. I found myself becoming frustrated as I still appeared to find it extremely hard to draw a simple straight line (either horizontally or vertically) and was finding it very difficult to work out the perspective angles. Taking a short break enabled me to take a step back, and to get my sense of humour back, and to knuckle down and just see what I could learn.

Things that I feel went well: I am pleased that I was able to push on with the drawing, despite, initially, my internal critic having a field day. I managed to reach the point where I knew that I was not drawing well but was able to accept that I was drawing the best that I could manage at present. And that in time and with a lot more practice, and by making a lot more mistakes, the best I can manage will gradually get better, because by allowing myself to make the mistakes I will be able to learn what works and what doesn’t.

Things that I feel did not go well: On a large piece of paper (for me) I am finding it difficult to see when a line is straight. As well as positive shapes I tried to work out angles using negative shapes as well and found that I was finding it hard to translate what I was seeing accurately. I find that at present I often can’t recognise what angles a window, or a roof etc, slopes at, I literally cannot trust my eyes, but hopefully this will improve with practice. Again, while concentrating so hard on angles etc I managed next to no variation in line and showing of textures was minimal and clumsy. Drawing in receding lines at the end clearly shows that I have got many of them wrong. Many of the lines e.g. windows that are on the same plane and therefore should do, do not meet at the same point on the eye level line. Some such as the upper windows, right hand side, will clearly never meet.

What I would like to do following this exercise:

I need to read up on and look further into perspective and practice some of the principles. I would like to experiment with types of buildings and the textures of these in my sketchbook. I would like to see how other artists have treated drawing buildings, both from the perspective point of view and also texture and colour. I need to continue to allow myself to make mistakes, look on them as opportunities for growth and then work out how to solve them and learn from them. I would like to be able to do more doing and less thinking about doing.