One-Point Perspective

I've started to learn perspective drawing and I'm enjoying it so much. I feel like I'm receiving some tools that will make it easier for me to convert what I have inside my head to a piece of paper. I have so many magical places in my mind that I want to share with you and I think I'm one step closer to being able to do so.

I'm only just starting to get the hang of one-point perspective but I'm eager to learn more. I have an art book that has been really helpful. It's called 'The Art of Perspective: The Ultimate Guide For Artists in Every Medium' by Phil Metzger. This book takes you through many different aspects of perspective drawing. I haven't read the entire book yet but I really like the way it's put together. There are many illustrations that help describe the subjects that Phil Metzger are explaining and a what-have-we-learnt section after each chapter.

Two things I've found really helpful to keep in mind, when drawing with one-point perspective, is the eye level of your scene and the scene's vanishing point. When learning new things I want it to be kept simple. If I have to remember too many things at the same time I'll be sure to forget one of them or confuse myself more than necessary. 

Once you've established your eye level make a dot on that line to represent your vanishing point. Now all the lines in your drawing, except the vertical lines, has to meet at that vanishing point. Once I learnt this I thought that that couldn't be right. As it turns out, it is. 

I've tried to make some lines on top of one of my inktober, actually one of the very first drawings I've ever made with one-point perspective, to hopefully clarify the meaning of eye level and vanishing point and how to actually use them. 

The red line is my eye level. I've drawn the blue lines to show that all of my lines, the lines of the table, the lines of the shelves, all meet in the vanishing point. As this is one of the first drawings I've ever made using one-point perspective I'm sure there are some mistakes. For instance I don't think the eye level should have been quite that far up the page.

I would definitely recommend this art book if you're learning perspective drawing. I had no idea about what to do at first but after reading some chapters in this book I felt like I could take on the challenge. 

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Pages from the art book are copyright Phil Metzger

The art book: The Art of Perspective: The Ultimate Guide for Artists in Every Medium

Liquids VS Pans

Watercolour is one of my go to mediums. I have both pans and liquid water colours. But what's the difference? When do I use one and when the other?

Hopefully after this short review I'll have given you a better idea.

I use watercolour for my backgrounds. I choose the type of watercolour based on the kind of background I have in mind.

The liquid watercolours are much more powerful and can give you a really strong and colourful background. The pans aren't as saturated and can sometimes get a little "muddy" when you compare them to the liquid watercolours.

The pans are however much easier to handle. You can decide on the amount of colour you want by adding a lot of paint to your brush or by watering it down. I find this a lot more difficult with the liquid watercolours. I can't get the same amount of in-between-colours as I can with the pans.

I sometimes use a lot of layering in my backgrounds and for this I'll definitely use pans. They have a better finish once they're layered and with the extra control you can achieve some beautifully detailed backgrounds with alternating colours.

We all make mistakes. When you're painting with watercolour you can sometimes correct them by lifting the paint and "erasing" the mistake. It's a lot harder to lift liquid watercolour than pans.

I really like the amazing colours the liquid watercolours have which is why I almost always incorporate them in my paintings. If I want to have a layered background the first layer will be with liquid watercolour and then I'll layer with pans.

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Liquid watercolour: Royal Talens
Watercolour pans: Winsor & Newton