two-point perspective – Dick Nelson Color

The second session of the Drawing Foundation class for Fall 2015 was held on Thursday, September 24. The class shared some creative solutions for drawing a square on an index card, and reviewed the one-point perspective homework drawings. Students used sighting and measuring techniques introduced in the first class to draw rectangular boxes set up on tables, using two-point perspective.

Homework assignment

1. Continue with the index card assignments.
2. Proceed at your own pace through the perspective DVD. All seven assignments are shown below for reference.

DVD Drawing Assignment #1: 1-Point Perspective

DVD Drawing Assignment #2: 2-Point Perspective

DVD Drawing Assignment #3: 2-Point Perspective with holes & cutouts

DVD Drawing Assignment #4: The Ellipse & Cylinder

DVD Drawing Assignment #6: Shelves & Stairs

DVD Drawing Assignment #7: True Perspective

Class recap

Index card assignment

It’s hard to recognize the preconceptions that can limit your creativity. Identifying the givens (explicitly naming the physical characteristics and criteria) can help. In this exercise, the givens are the black pen and white rectangular index card. The most obvious solutions will be to make a dark outline or figure on a light background, with sides parallel to the sides of the card. Tight constraints, such as being limited to only parallel lines, can bring out creativity.

Observation assignment: drawing rectangular boxes

The class practiced drawing rectangular boxes from sitting and standing.

A tiny adjustment to line angle or length can make a big difference to the correctness of the perspective drawing.

Line character

Dick briefly introduced the ideas of line weight, line character, and implied line. More information can be found in a drawing lesson handout on this website at https://dicknelsoncolor.com/class-handouts-2003/drawing/. The PDF found there is one of many that were included in the “Lessons” CD created for Dick’s retrospective exhibition at the Hui No`Eau in 2003. If you’ve taken a class from Dick since then, you probably own a copy.

Videos and recordings

Dick demonstrates how to draw an arbitrary fold and a vertical fold.

Dick points out how eye level in two-point perspective affects angles on the page and what a viewer can see.

Listen to the class

Class recap

Drawing with linear perspective was emphasized in Dick’s undergraduate training on the West Coast, while in graduate studies at Yale the emphasis was on drawing from observation. This program teaches both, as he feels both are important, and complementary. Understanding linear perspective allows you to draw realistic scenes from life, as Brunelleschi exploited in the Renaissance, and also gives you the ability to draw something you imagine, that doesn’t exist or isn’t in front of you, instead of being restricted to things within your sight. Drawing from life trains your observation skills and eye-hand coordination – you learn to translate what your eyes see into physical movements and marks on paper.

Sighting lengths, angles, and proportions for perspective drawings

Videos and recordings

Dick Nelson demonstrates how to draw a sheet of paper and a rectangular box in one-point perspective.

Drawing a head in perspective: Dick demonstrates how understanding perspective with simple rectangular shapes applies to being able to draw something as complex as a human head later.