Week 5 Term 1 2023

A small challenge this week.
Not only are you going to learn how perspective works, you’re also going to stand on the street and sketch it right there - straight in with the black pen.
We have an excellent graph to help understand what happens above our eye level and what happens below. In the Gazebo we study that before we go plein air.
Our graph focusses on the corner of a wood or brick building. We start with where our eye level is.
Turns out they’re doing big alterations on the little Blue Church which was our subject.
Concrete mixers, work trucks, ladders, scaffolding. Mmmm.
Not to be concerned - life does throw curlies at us sometimes - we just get on.

Our first sketch would be ‘Flat Perspective’ and standing directly in front and sketching the building shape. This is a very nice way to sketch a building, little old shop or even Notre Dame. No need to worry about any perspective and you can add all the details you need and it looks great. And it’s stress free.

The second sketch was the eye level perspective version. By moving along the street a little we could see the rooflines and building structure and how it all connected. Lot’s of observation required here.
We didn’t put in the awning across the doorway, no work trucks ladders garbage bins or scaffolding.
Nope just the shape of the building.
However we could add the little dog that came along, the flowers in the front and the shrubs and foliage around sides.
All that adds to the scene you’re creating.

On Friday, we decided to tone down the blue of the building a little more than we did on Wednesday. You’ll see my pic below.
We did actually decide to do a base of Yellow Ochre followed by a layer of Ultramarine. We hadn’t done it that way previously but we thought it worked.
We learn something every time.

Very pleasing results from everyone, and for some who’ve never had previous drawing lessons- this is a triumph.