Happy New Year! Perspectve Part III

Happy New Year! Whew. I can’t believe how fast everything went by this holiday season. Without our son home, everything seems a bit out of sorts. We did ourselves a favor and spent Christmas in Seaside at the resort there right on the beach (a friend has a time-share). What a lovely place. Everyone was in a rather festive mood—so many of us brought our own trees, some even decorated their balconies. Cool.

The year ahead

On a personal note, this year is especially important for me. I’ll be a five-year breast cancer survivor this coming May! My doctor tells me that when I’m finished with my medication, I will have the same chance of getting breast cancer as any other woman on the planet. Good stats.

It’s been a tough, uphill battle for me. I’ve not only learned how to deal with this devastating mark on my life, but also learned I really do have choices. As I’ve said before, I live by a 20/20 code. I may be alive for 20 years or twenty days, but I’m choosing to make the best out of every day I have left.

Teaching & Traveling for 2010
As for teaching, I have lots of exciting things planned for 2010. I’ll continue to teach at PCC and home studio, as well as Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (just north of Lincoln City) next September. I have lots of sketching trips planned, which are beginning to fill up already: Palm Springs (Presidents’ Day weekend), Waldport, Ore. (Memorial Day weekend), England (June) as well as two cruises: one to Russia (June/July) and another trip to Alaska (September). You can go over to my website at www.jillgoodell.com to see details and info for reservations and deposits.

This month’s lesson: Two-Point Perspective

And now for the last of my series on perspective. So far, we’ve discussed eye level (horizon line), vanish points/lines, one point perspective and now, let’s talk about two-point. As opposed to one-point perspective, where everything vanishes to one-point on the horizon line, two-point can be described as two planes that meet from two vanishing points. Below is a graphic description of this concept:

I hope this helps to understand perspective a bit better than before. Next month, I will cover using the grid system to help you draw more realistically.

Before I leave, here is a little one-minute video on how to create water in watercolor. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hADZokpJ7DE

The holidays are upon us--Perspective II

I don't know about you, but I am feeling the holiday spirit very early this year. I'm not really sure if it's because of  the encore art show at Blue Moon Coffee or if it's just enjoying life once again from a child's perspective. So often, especially when I'm drawing or painting, I feel like a five year old, playing to my hearts content, which I think is helping me to slow down the time and taking a break to embrace the day. It's been a long time coming, but I think I've finally arrived at enjoying the present, more than ever. So enough of my stuff, let's move on to some fun things:

Encore Student Art Show December 6th
Let me invite you to the Encore Student Art Show next month. Since we are scheduled to be at Blue Moon for two months, we thought a second  reception was in order, this time with a holiday theme complete with new art, new cards and new gift ideas. So come by on Sunday, December 6 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Blue Moon Coffee in Lake Oswego. Grab yourself a warm cup of coffee, enjoy the new art, peruse the students' portfolios, if you didn't get to them the first time around, and maybe even purchase a cool Holiday card or a lovely present. (click graphic)

Perspective Part II--One Point

Last issue I talked about the horizon line (your eye level), which is a hard concept for people to understand. Hopefully you now have a better understanding of it. Today, I'd like to go over  simple one-point perspective. As I've done is classes before, look at these two line drawings below (click graphic):

The lines going to the vanishing point are called orthogonals. I just call them vanishing lines since they vanish into the distance. One-point perspective is when all the vanishing lines converge on one point (see photo below, click on it for a larger view). Next month, I'll cover a little more about this and touch upon two-point perspective. Let me know if this helping. And one more thing: Happy Thanksgiving!