Establishing perspective from a reference photo

 How to find correct angles of perspective from a photo.

The first thing you always do is look for the horizon line and vanishing point. Here are some clues to look for:

(EYE LEVEL can be the level of the camera, not your eyes)

1. Find a spot where angles level off to a more horizontal line

2. Is there a person in the picture? The horizon line is possibly through that person's eye, if he is standing and is about your height.

3. Are there windows in the picture? You can guess-timate where someone's head might be in a ground floor window. If the windows are all in a row, even better!!! You can draw a line from the top of the window, then another at the bottom of the window, and find out where they converge.

4. If your view point is from an upper story window, look for any lines that would be parallel in reality, and find out where they converge.

5. What about cars or other vehicles that you can compare a person's height to? If you can see the top of the car, your eye level is above it. If not, it is below or at that level.

Here are some pictures to illustrate:

To find my eye level, I could find parallel lines, such as the windows on the buildings, the sidewalk and street edges. There is a person in a backpack, but his head is way higher than the level of other people's heads. He is either very tall or the street slopes downward a little, maybe both. But I would judge my eye level about on the x on the backpack, and the vanishing point to the left of the x.

Another one-point perspective. These are usually the easiest to find eye level and vanishing point.

You can see the tops of the windows are above my eye level; the bottoms, which slope upward to the center, are below my eye level. I could just follow the street lines until they converge. I would judge the horizon line to be just below the head of the person in the street.

Here's a perfect example of two points perspective, with vanishing lines on the left and right sides of the photo, off the page. I have some clues as to possible eye level. Look at the line through the center of the windows. They look fairly horizontal to me. To verify, I would extend the line of the base of the house to the left; then extend the angle of the roof to the left, until the two converged. That would be one vanishing point, and you can draw a horizontal line through that all the way to the right of the picture. 

Here is a bridge I frequently walk across. Just looking at the picture, one point perspective, it would seem my eye level is somewhere in the trees. Oops. Look again. The top bars of the bridge are nearly horizontal. That is my eye level. So you can tell this bridge is going uphill.

Same bridge, but looking downward. If I drew lines where the bridge floor converged, it would be about the level of the girl's knees. Plus, the top bar of the bridge is at her eye level, yet it slopes down instead of horizontal. 

The path is pretty level until it gets to the bridge. Since I walk it often, I know those posts, standing next to them, reach my face. The road takes a curve, too. My vanishing point is somewhere on the level of the posts, but to the right of the bridge. 

Several things to notice, though. One is that the road continues to narrow in the distance. And the road is darkest near the viewer and lighter in the distance.

Here is a picture with 3 perspective points, called OBLIQUE perspective. In one and 2 point perspective, all vertical lines in reality are still vertical. In this picture you have a vanishing point on the left (out of the picture), one on the right, and you also see these very tall buildings get smaller as they reach the sky. That is your third vanishing point.

This has no real linear perspective. All horizontal lines appears horizontal; all vertical lines appears vertical; there are no shapes with much volume. 

This we didn't have a chance to cover, but we will. Stairs. Always a conundrum.

There is an eye level. When looking at stairs, eye level is where you can no longer see the top of the step, only the side face. When drawing stairs, you need to establish 2 things: YOUR eye level, and the vanishing point of the stairs, which makes it a 3rd vanishing point. 

Perspective Part I: An Overview & 1 point perspective e

 WHY should I teach about perspective? I just want to paint!

Reason number 1: There are many things that I can fix after critiquing a painting. But I can't fix perspective at the end.  When I've invested so much time and energy into a beautiful painting, when I'm ready to critique, and the perspective is off, I can't fix it. So it has to be part of the planning process.Even in a "loose" style.

Reason # 2: Perspective is in nearly everything you draw or paint. It is the process by which we interpret the 3 dimensional world and project it onto 2 dimensional surfaces. This includes both man-made structures and nature.

Reason #3: The understanding of a few basic skills make you a better observer, ergo a better artist.

Reason #4: If your perspective is off, it will be the first thing viewers notice, and then can't un-see. 

There are several types of perspective: Linear (broken down into 1 point, 2 point, and oblique--several point--perspective); and aerial or atmospheric perspective. (which deals with how we see things in a distance through the air between the viewer and the object)

Linear perspective deals with what are parallel lines in reality that seem to converge as they become distant.

There are 5 ways we make things appear distant on a 2-D page.

1. An object at the top of the page appears more distant than the same object at the bottom

2. Changing the size of objects; smaller objects appear distant

3. Overlapping one object with another pushes the overlapped object toward the back

4. Converging lines such as railroad tracks that appear to come together 

5. objects are closer together

5. Using atmospheric qualities. Objects in the distance are....

    a. lighter in value

    b. bluer/grayer in tone 

    c. less vibrant; more subdued color (less "saturated")

    d. have softer edges

    e.  have little or no detail

    f. less contrast

    

Take for example an ocean view. The waves appear larger and farther apart close to the shore, and disappear entirely as they approach the horizon line. The color of the Ocean gets cooler farther away. It is usually lighter in value near the horizon line.

The goal here is NOT to make you a technically perfect architect, but to help you make your paintings more believable.

We can become too used to tracing a picture to paint, and that is fine to a point. But what if I want to add a detail, such a person or car or tree, to add more interest? I need to know how it fits into that scene.  What if I want to paint a loose scene? Great...but if your perspective is wrong, it won't turn out the way you want. And what if you want to paint en plain air?  Where do you start?

You don't have to do a million grid lines to make a believable picture, but you do need to follow some basics.

This week we are starting with simple one-point perspective. Linear perspective always starts with the horizon line. 

Please watch this short video by Stan Prokopenko, a drawing artist who does a great job of simplifying the process.

https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/one-point-perspective/comments

Make a little family of bird houses.

Here is the exercise we did to go along with that video:

Step 1: Draw a horizon (eye level) line and mark the vanishing point. Then draw squares around, on, above, and below the line. 

Step 2: Draw orthographic lines from the points of the squares to the vanishing point. (Orthographic: lines that are in reality parallel, but are converging in the distance) Observe that in some cases you see a bottom and side; sometimes only a side or a top. And in one case, only the top.

Step 3:Draw in the back lines for the boxes. They will look either vertical, horizontal, or L shaped.

No crazy angles here. Erase your orthographic lines to look like boxes. (but keep the eye level line and vanishing point)

Step 4:. Turn them into bird houses by giving them roofs. The one on the bottom left uses two more lines from the vanishing point to establish the top and bottom of the roof side. So does the one on the right, where part of the birdhouse is above eye level, and part is below eye level. 

ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE

One point perspective makes you feel like you're in a tunnel. In grade school, we learned to make a railroad track by making two lines converge to a point, and making the railway ties smaller and smaller as they disappear into the distance.

Here are some pictures from Unsplash to illustrate:

If we have a reference, we start by deconstructing it into it's Horizon Line, Vanishing Point, and orthographic lines. (these are lines that in reality are parallel, but seem to converge in our viewpoint)

Let's start with the horizon line in this simple example. It is actually your EYE LEVEL or the EYE LEVEL of the camera, and often it is on the horizon, but not always. In a reference, you can find the eye level line easily if the path converges, such as this bridge to the island. Where the lines of that path would cross is the VANISHING POINT, and also where the horizon line is.

In the picture below, if I continued the lines of the bridge, they would converge just beyond that Central tree and just beyond the little island. (If there was no island, it would probably converge on the shore line opposite) So I'm going to use that shoreline as my horizon (Eye Level) line, and the point beyond the tree as the vanishing point.

My Horizon Line and vanishing point.

I make a point at the bottom of the page where the bridge will start (left and right) and draw lines to the vanishing point. I draw dots where the ends of the planks would be and connect those to the vanishing point.

I drew in the perpendicular post on the right (in orange). Then the planks on the bottom and top right. (in purple)  When I was happy with that, I duplicated it on the left side.

Now I need to figure out how far to put the posts from each other. I start with where I think the next post should go and draw a vertical line.  I make a mark halfway up the  first post. Then I drew a line from the top of the first post, thru the middle of the second post, to the bottom board. Where that diagonal meets the bottom is the position for the next post. I keep doing that until I can no longer see the posts.

I should have drawn in the converging line that goes from the vanishing point to the middle of the first post. This establishes the middle of every single post in that line. Sorry)

Here is a 2-minute videos that explains it really well.

https://www.google.com/search?q=making+evenly+spaced+poles+in+a+perspective+drawing&rlz=1CATRIY_enUS1088&oq=making+evenly+spaced+poles+in+a+perspective+drawing&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCjIyMjc0ajBqMTWoAgiwAgE&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b1d30ef8,vid:npWYLktl9Pk,st:53

No need to do the process on the other side because the posts are evenly placed. All I have to do is draw a horizontal line from one side to the other at the bottom of each post, and it will tell me where to place them. 

I could continue this, but I want to go to the island. 

I draw the end of the bridge, and erase the lines beyond that. The island is slightly below the horizon line. Just sketch in the shore line and some tree shapes. There is some water and land just beyond the island.

Transfer the important shapes to your watercolor paper.

Let's go a step further. What if I want to draw a person on this bridge?

The head of a person about your height, standing, will be at your eye level. The horizon line. So draw the head / eyes of the Figure on the horizon line. Figure out approximately where you want the feet to be. Make a vertical line from that point to the horizon line, and make a small circle for the head. 

Make another person on the left, but closer to the viewer. Heads are all on the horizon line, but feet are in a different position.

Remember I said that things higher on the page indicate distance? The feet higher in the page make that figure look more distant.

Now make a person taller than you,(eye level higher than yours) or a child, head below your eye level.

 

I've asked everyone to have a notebook or sketch paper handy to practice some of these exercises. There is a connection between how much you learn and how much you draw for yourself. Personally, I need as many senses engaged as possible to learn something. So doing it helps put it in your brain so you don't have to worry about it so much.

The homework is just to observe. As you drive, look for the horizon line, the point of view, your vanishing point. Ask if it's at your eye level or up a hill or down a hill. I think you'll find yourself doing this anyway. 

BEGINNING THE BRIDGE ISLAND PIC

This photo reference is from Unsplash, and the photographer is Hert Niks.

Draw your picture on watercolor paper. Tape off the angles of the bridge. This is so I can freely paint the water without losing the crisp angles and edges of the bridge. I first painted in the sky.

When painting in the sky remember the sky at the top, above you, is usually bright and darker in value than the sky near the horizon. I mixed 2 puddles of paint, pure cerulean and cerulean that is muted with a little gray or burnt sienna. I wet the entire sky, and while it was wet, painted in the pure cerulean in some of the top. As I came down toward the horizon, the patches became lighter and more muted in the clouds. 

(This coincides with the principle that color in distance is lighter in value and more muted)

When I have sky and land or sky and sea, I think of it as a sandwich. The sky is bluer and cleaner at the top, and becomes lighter toward the horizon. THE SEA OR LAND is darker and a warmer blue at the bottom, an becomes lighter and cooler toward the horizon. This combination enhances the feeling of distance in the middle.

I also wet the area below the island that is reflecting color into the water. I dropped in quin gold and quin burnt orange (or a compilation of burnt sienna with warm yellow). I want this to dry before I begin the water. 

Next week we'll finish this picture.

Watercolor with Tissue paper and gesso

 

Tissue paper and gesso

I wanted our last flower of the season to be super fun and loose. So we're trying gesso with watercolor.

Here are the written instructions for applying gesso to your paper. In this case, you don't need good watercolor paper...your cheap stuff will do, because gesso changes the texture and absorbancy of the surface anyway.

https://mindywara.squarespace.com/studio-journal/creating-texture-with-tissue-paper-and-gesso

And here is a video. The first part shows how to apply the gesso; the rest is doing an abstract with it. There are other videos if you want to Google "watercolor with tissue and gesso." This is from Blake's Studio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkHgk086vS0

There are two ways to apply the gesso for textured effects. The first is like in the above video, where the entire piece of paper is gesso and tissue. The second way is to gesso the paper, and while wet, apply the tissue in small clumps to represent flowers, rocks, water, trees, or other objects. Whatever method, the gesso needs to be completely dry. I dry mine overnight, but 4 hours is usually enough. It can be dried with a hair dryer also.

TIP: 

*Use only old brushes to apply gesso, and rinse immediately.

* I have used a very thin rice paper in place of tissue....both work very well.

* If you want to use a patterned tissue, you can get CLEAR gesso. In my example below, I used clear gesso over tissue with polka dots in it. You can see the dots. 

* Remember to tear the edges if you are doing just the spots. Torn edges blend better with the paper. 

* You can add another layer of tissue after the first is dried, if you don't feel you have enough texture.

Below is a painting done with all the page covered with tissue.

Below is the second method, with small bits of tissue (about 2" crumpled) applied where I want the flowers to be. The entire page has gesso, but the tissue is only applied in certain areas.

First, on scrap paper, we practiced some loose flower painting methods using brush strokes: roses, petunias, cone flowers, poppies, forsythia, etc. This was a warm up to get inspired for putting the loose flowers onto the dried gesso paper. If you REMEMBER TO KEEP WHITES, it will look great.

For background, I did paint this in last, but it doesn't make much difference. Enjoy the unpredictability of this painting!

Here are some short videos with loose flower practice:

Emma LeFebvre - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9-ZSvmHfl8

Roses by Ellen Crimi Trent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PGMzaf-h1U

Emma LeFebvre - 5 flowers including pansies, tulips, hydrangea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hokPklKqbWo

Can't wait to see your finished paintings!!

Finishing the rose

First a quote...how do you know when someone is serious about watercolor?

When the hairdryer is no longer in the bathroom but in the paint area .thanks, Sarah.

Working on the leaves

For the leaves and stems, under-paint it all with yellow or yellow green.

With a sap green or a mixed green ...I used french ultramarine with yellow or pthalo with quin gold...paint around the veins. It may help to lightly draw in veins first. Curve the veins to match the curve of the leaf. When you are done with this step, the veins will look yellow. 

This step you need cerulean blue...or a green blue...and red or orange for the tips. When the leaf is dry, glaze it with cerulean. This should not turn the leaf blue, just change the green. While the paint is wet, with a small brush, dab orange or red into the tips of the serrations, letting it bleed into the blue green of the leaf. The orange should not be watery, but a thicker consistency than the glaze color. Otherwise you might get blossoms instead of a blend.

For stems, mix your green and have an orange or burnt sienna ready. Cover the stem with green, and while wet, drop in orange (or b. Sienna or warm red) along one edge of the stem to create the reddish variations you find on rose stems. Also wet the thorn areas and drop paint in the tip of the thorn. I used the same pink as the flower.

For the bud, paint it in the rose color and dry. Paint in the green, and darken one edge to create a rounded effect. When it is dry, darken the underside of the sepal on the right.

Painting the petals is often a lot of push and pull between darkening shadows and lifting hilights, and adjusting warm and cool colors. In the picture below I want to show the value of having a transparent blue to cool areas. I love using cobalt blue in cooler areas, such as the petals that face the sky.

When you want a petal to show a curve or curl, you take advantage of three things: change of value, change of temperature, and soft rather than hard edges. The inner edge may be warm, the outer side cool, with a soft highlight lifted at the curve.

I always save lifting for the last step bc it can damage the paper. For achieving a soft edge I just use clean water on a brush, lift paint, and blot. But for a small, hard edged area, like the center of this flower, I use masking tape, leaving an opening where I want to lift. Then I can use a damp sponge or mr. Clean to remove the paint. Wait until it dries to remove tape so you don't risk tearing the paper.

I lifted areas that I want to feel more rounded 

Here you can see where I lifted highlights on some petals 

Last week I showed creating the background first. You can also do it at the end. After your painting is dry, tape off a window and loosely paint in the colors you want for the background. Dry before removing the tape.

 

Pink Roses and Karlyn Holman

I wanted to do show some of Karlyn Holman's techniques. My main purpose was to do the opposite of the daffodils: paint a light background first; and lay in the color washes and then shade the flowers.

But first, here is an idea for your daffodils. If you want to, you can use a stencil and a damp sponge in the dark of your background to create interest. Just tape the stencil where you want it, then wipe with a clean sponge, blot with towels. Some of the color from underneath shows up through the black.

Second, I wanted everyone to prep a piece of paper for our last lesson, a very loose floral.

You will need some watercolor paper--this is a time to use that cheaper paper. Cover it with gesso, and while the gesso is wet, lay wrinkled tissue or rice paper over it. Press down, trying to get wrinkles in it for texture. Then cover the entire thing with gesso again.

I made two: one with clear gesso over a tissue with a little print. The other, I tore small pieces of tissue and only laid them where I wanted to put a poppy flower. (You can select where you want texture this way)   Then gesso over the page. Let it air dry for 24 hours.

Clear gesso over print tissue

regular gesso with tissue placed only where I want texture

So on with today's lesson: beginning a rose Karlyn Holman style.

The first thing we did was draw the rose, and lightly erase lines. 

Then tape around where you want a border to be. (This step can be done AFTER the rose is painted, but I wanted to show doing it first. The effect is different)

Here is the pattern from two roses from my garden. The dark is for if you only want one simple rose. The green you would add if you want both roses. The pink frame line is where to put tape for the frame.

After taping off the frame, wet the paper and lightly drop in color, avoiding the place for roses. If SOME of the water/paint seeps into a leaf or rose, that's fine, as long as there are no hard edges. Leave whites.

When the background is dry, remove the tape gently.

Then choose a warm and a cool Red. I am using permanent rose and quin coral. 

I wet the petals all at one time, and painted in a pale cool pink. While it was still wet, I dropped in the warm pink (coral) in the centers where the flower color will be warmer.

When that is completely dry, I began separating the petals from each other. The paint is more of a cream consistency. I wet the area, painted the dark against the edge where petals meet, and let the color fade into the body of the other petal.

Here I've done the inner petal and one outer petal. 

Continue separating the petals. Use warms toward the center of the flower and cools on the outer petals.

Next week: finishing the flowers and working on leaves.