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: