You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less (43 page)

3. Draw a vertical line where you want your buildings to start on the left side of your paper. Then draw a vertical line where you want your buildings to end, also on the left side of your paper. Make sure to keep your vertical lines straight so that they match the edge of your sketchbook. Feel free to use a ruler or straightedge to draw the lines. When I draw small one-point perspective illustrations, I often sketch freehand, without a straightedge. Try drawing this lesson both ways, with a ruler, then freehand. Which is more enjoyable for you?

The ruler drawing will appear hard-edged and precise, whereas the freehand won’t be as technical looking, but it will have your special hand-drawn stylistic feel. I hesitate to suggest that students experiment with using a straightedge in this lesson because some students tend to become dependent on this tool. Please understand that the straightedge is just another drawing tool in your quiver, just as the blending Stomp is an extremely helpful tool. If need be, however, you
can
draw just fine without it.

 

4. Now do the same for the right side of your drawing. Draw vertical lines to indicate the position of the buildings.

5. Make sure that the buildings’ top and bottom lines match up with your vanishing point.

6. Draw horizontal lines, matching the horizon line (your eye level) from the top and bottom corners of each building on the left side of the drawing. This is the moment when your drawing really snaps off the page!

7. Draw the horizontal thickness lines on the buildings on the right side of the drawing.

8. Draw the road and the center divider lines. Shade the building block forms. I’ve positioned my light source at the vanishing point, so I have shaded all the surfaces facing away from the vanishing point.

This lesson was inspired when I was crossing Fifth Avenue in New York City. I looked down the middle of the street and saw the towering buildings, the river of yellow taxis, and even the crowds of people on the sidewalks, all lined up in one-point perspective! I stopped in my tracks and thought, “What a great drawing lesson this is . . . ” when a taxi blared his horn and yelled at me to get out of the street!

Another inspiring moment for this lesson was when I was shopping at the grocery store, rolling down the canned vegetable isle and . . . “Whoa! Major one-point perspective lesson!”—all 10,000 cans are all lined up to one vanishing point!

It’s really very cool. Oh! I just remembered another great location for one-point inspiration—the library! All the books on the shelves are in wonderful one-point perspective rows! You should try this yourself next time you are at the grocery store or the library. It makes the idea one-point perspective crystal clear!

Redraw the lesson below, and add a ton of extra ideas. You can see how I’ve added doors, windows, and a few neighbors. Have fun with this one. Draw awnings, stoops, and maybe a flower box or two. Details truly are the spice of life!

Why stop here? Why not apply this one-point perspective technique out in the real world to really see how it works? Grab your clear clipboard with a piece of clear Write-On Film taped to it, along with your fine-point black Sharpies. Walk down your driveway to the street. Look down the street, either way (it doesn’t matter); just pick the direction that is the most visually interesting. Close one eye, and trace what you see by looking through your clear clipboard. To stabilize your arm, lean against a stationary object, such as your mailbox or a parked car. Your vanishing point is going to be a bit off to the right or left of center as you will not be standing in the middle of the street. However, you will be delighted with your black ink tracing. Pretty neat to see how this vanishing point works in reality, yes?

Try this sitting on a bench downtown, in the park, or on a pier. I actually did this in a department store while looking up the escalators. I couldn’t resist! The uniformity and repeated pattern were just too visually compelling. A thousand escalator steps all lined up to a single vanishing point. A veritable one-point-perspective drawing lottery win! After the sixth curious stare from a passing shopper, I put my clipboard down, but not before I finished the tracing of the foreshortened escalator.

You can achieve a similar exercise by taking a photo and placing a clear plastic Write-On Film over it. It’s not as fun or adventurous (or as annoying to people trying to get around you on the sidewalk), but taking digital pictures of your target view is another way to make this exercise work. For example, when I was inspired by the one-point perspective view while walking along Fifth Avenue in New York City, I should have taken a picture rather than stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to draw amid several hundred hurried New York pedestrians. It took five attempts, crossing an intersection over and over again, to successfully capture the image in my mind.

Here are three great student examples from this lesson to inspire you to keep drawing every day!