Perspective Pain

After abandoning the book and drawing that awful rendering of my dog, I came back to the book for the next lesson, which was on perspective. I set myself up to complete the perspective assignment -- I chose my hallway -- and began. The exercise required me to first map out the hallway with my "perspective pane" -- or as I have begun to call it, my perspective pain.

The first couple of times that used the pane, it amazed me. When I used it to aid me in drawing my hand, the pane was resting on my hand and was, therefore, stable and did not shift around. Using the pane to draw something that requires you to hold the pane up with one hand and draw on it with the other is nearly impossible. And in order for the final drawing to be accurate, the image on the pane has to be accurate as well. With no way to actually stabilize the pane enough to draw my hallway on it with any degree of accuracy, I decided to scrap it. I am not suggesting that I am too good for the pane. But I do feel like it was getting in the way. Because I feel like I fully understood the lesson that the pane taught, I did not feel like it would hinder my progress too much to try and do the lesson without it.

I have no idea what I might have produced with the pane, but I am pleased with what I drew without it. Perspective is not difficult. It is mainly a trick of the eye. Closing one eye flattens the image enough that the line and angles sort of pop into place. As long as you get out of the left brain and focus on drawing the lines as they intersect instead of trying to draw an open door in terms of how language understands an open door, it is pretty easy. I even experienced the "flow" that the author spoke about -- losing track of time and becoming so immersed that you "lose yourself."

Here is the drawing of my hallway:

Hmmm....

Well...I never said it was going to be good.

So I took a break to the book, and while it was fun and made me feel like a real artist using a graphite stick instead of a pencil, the product was less than awesome. Let's just say that my two tries at drawing without the guidance of Betty Edwards are...um...er...minimalist?

A break from the Book

I love the Drawing from the right side of the brain book, and I feel like I have learned a lot from it, but true to my nature, I have grown bored with the lessons...and impatient. I am tired of drawing hands and chairs. So, this week I felt like branching out on my own. I have been working on a drawing of my dog. I have wanted for a while to have a pencil drawing of him that I could frame and hang. I just never thought that I would be the one drawing it!

So far, it is not too bad. I am doing it from a photo, so I don't need the window pane. So see... I am still employing the concepts of the book; however, my creativity dictated that I do something for myself at this point in journey. I am still working on it, but I will post a photo of the drawing of the photo as soon as I feel like it is presentable. Stay tuned!!

Negative Progress

It was bound to happen. I have hit a wall.

The most recent lesson was on negative space -- which I was really excited about because I love the idea of negative space. In art and in life, I believe that perception is reality. Negative space is a perfect example of this. I also love the idea that the spaces in between things are as important as the things themselves...very zen. And it reminds me of quantum physics.

However, the lesson on negative spaces has frustrated me. We are supposed to draw a chair only using the negative spaces of it -- using our perspective panes. I am beginning to hate this perspective pane. It is nearly impossible to hold up the pane and draw on it without the pane moving around and distorting the perspective. Conceptually, it makes perfect sense. But in production it makes what started out as an exciting task an arduous one.

So I decided to put down the pane and try to draw the negative spaces free hand. But I have not cultivated the skills fully or mastered proportion. So everything is really off and distorted.

See, this is the old impatience creeping in. I want to be able to draw now, and I do not want to put in the work. I feel like the karate kid when he was waxing on and waxing off -- working on the fundamentals when all you want to do is kick some ass.

I will go back to the perspective pane. But I won't like it, and I will need to wallow in my set back for a day or two.