One-Point Perspective Part Two: Dividing Vertical Space

After spending 12 days on the New England to Quebec sketching holiday cruise with some lovely students, I'm now back in the studio. If you want to see some photos of the trip, go here. I'll be uploading some of my sketches soon.

100^th post, 10-year anniversary

This month we are covering dividing vertical space in perspective. But before I begin, I’d like to celebrate a bit. This is my 100^th newsletter post, plus the 10^th anniversary of Glastonbury Studios! I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. Thank you all. It’s been an absolutely wonderful adventure. I've grown a lot and I hope you have too. Wahoo!!!

Now onto the subject at hand:

Dividing Space
So far we've learned how to find the horizon line, the vanishing point and convergent lines. For instance, here's one of the photos from last month's issue with  all the perspective ingredients.

Notice in the picture how everything close to you is very clear and easy to see but as you go further toward the vanishing point (white dot), things get smaller and less distinguishable. How is that done? Well, you could guess-t-mate, which I often do when I'm drawing outside on one of my sketching holidays, fixing it all when I get back in the studio. You could also use your compass as a measuring tool to determine the distance, which is doable, but awkward. Or you could create dividing lines using the following method:

Dividing Vertical Space:

• Step One:  Find your horizon line, convergent lines and vanishing point.
• Step Two:  Draw your first vertical line, then find the  center. Draw a line from the center to the vanishing point. (In the example below, the horizon line and the mid-way point share the same space.)
• Step Three:  Draw a second vertical line, which may be arbitrary.

Click to view larger graphic

©2016 by Jill Jeffers Goodell

• Step Four:  Draw a line from A, crossing over mid-point (B) to C. Draw third vertical line.
• Step Five:  Draw a line from D, crossing over mid-point (E) to F.   Draw your fourth vertical line.
• Step Six:  Continue the same method until all vertical lines are built.

Click to view larger graphic

©2016 by Jill Jeffers Goodell

This may seem very tricky and hard, at first. But in this instance, practice makes perfect. In order to help you, I've uploaded a handout that you can use to practice. 

What I've shown you above is the "skeleton" of vertical spacing. Just for fun, I took the base layout and created a scene using gouache and marker.  Here's what it looks like:

Click to view larger graphic

©2016 by Jill Jeffers Goodell

I also have a fun handout that you can use to do the same thing. Color over the lines for the fence and then let your imagination run wild. 

One final thought. I was playing around with the division of space and wondered what it would look like with people instead of fences. Here's what I learned:

Click to view larger graphic

©2016 by Jill Jeffers Goodell

Now isn't that fun! But this only the beginning. We'll return to the fence again when we cover two-point perspective. For next month, let's build a room.

Until then, practice, practice, practice.

What's Coming Up!

Studio Classes
My studio classes have started and we've got a lively group this term. The next five-week term starts the first week of November. 

PCC Workshops

The Saturday workshops at PCC are usually held at the Sylvania campus from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Please contact PCC for details: call 971-722-6266 or visit their website at: www.pcc.edu/community.Please note: Workshops fill up early. You can email me to see if you can get in if the workshop is full.

Sketching Cats

October 15

Visual Journaling

November 5

Realistic Drawing

November 19

Pen and Ink

December 3

Sketch'n on the Go ™ Tours

England in 2017 

Back by popular demand!

Sketching the English Village
Chiseldon, UK

September 3-10, 2017

See details at: http://sketchingenglishvillage.blogspot.com/

There is a $50 deposit to reserve your place.