Mike: Views and Perspectives

This was a tough session. The idea was to draw Mike in several different 20-minute poses, aiming to combine the results into a scene of two figures. The second figure might be added directly to the first figure, or the two figures drawn independently to be combined at a later stage. Choosing between these approaches might be a question of individual viewpoints.

Not surprisingly people focused on the figures at the expense of the background of bookshelves.

But these bookshelves set their own challenges in terms of perspective.

This did depend of course on where you sat. But for most people it was – or should have been – an important consideration.

Addressing perspective is a simple but subtle procedure.

First assess your personal EYELINE, the level at which all horizontal lines – the lines you know in fact to be horizontal – are indeed horizontal according to your viewpoint. That Eyeline continues in both directions forever.

All the horizontal lines that are NOT horizontal to your view will eventually converge somewhere along that Eyeline. It may be at a point way beyond the confines of your paper, but they do converge, and that point is the Vanishing Point.

There are practical difficulties if you want to construct perspective guides with pencil and ruler, most obviously the likelihood that the vanishing point may well be off to the side of the paper.

Ultimately I think you train your eye to assess, rather than construct, perspective.The important thing is to be aware of it and address it.

Mike’s friend Sophia had come along with him, joined in the drawing and then, after teabreak, joined him as the second figure in a couple of poses: