You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less (47 page)

10. Now, we go back to our tried, tested, and true thickness rule: If the window is on the right side, the thickness is on the right side; if the window is on the left side, the thickness is on the left side. Use your straightedge to line up the far top corner of each window, with the vanishing point on the right side. Draw the thickness as wide or as thin as you like.

11. Draw the rows of buttress ramps with vertical lines. Draw the bottom of the ramp lined up with the opposite vanishing point.

 

12. Draw the top slant of the buttress ramps. Keep this angle in mind, as all the ramps that follow will match this angle exactly.

13. Lightly sketch in vanishing-point guide lines from the top and bottom corners of the buttress ramps on the right and left side of the castle.

14. Matching the near angle of the ramp, draw the thickness of the first ramps. Then leaving a gap, draw the next ramp by matching the same angle. Be sure to draw this next ramp thinner and smaller than the near ramp.

Here is a perfect visual example of the drawing law of size: The near ramp is closer and thus drawn larger. Each subsequent ramp is drawn smaller to give the illusion of depth. This is also a perfect example of the drawing law of placement: The near ramp is drawn lower, creating the illusion that it is closer. The next ramp is placed higher to make it look farther away.

Add the front entrance on the right side of the castle. Line up the bottom far corner of the door with the vanishing point on the left side.

15. Determine your light position, and shade the castle accordingly. Notice how I have shaded under the doorway arch. I’ve kept the window thicknesses shade-free to give the illusion that light is coming from within. Also notice how the nonshaded window ledges really pop out next to the black interior on one side and the graytone shading on the other side. This is called contrast. Contrast between values defines an object.

To complete the drawing, add details, such as bricks. Be sure to use your vanishing-point guide dots to appropriately line up the bricks’ angle, as I did in the drawing below. In most cases, when you’re adding textured detail, in this case the bricks, a little goes a long way, meaning that a scattered few groups of texture will give the illusion of full texture.

1. Find a piece of cardboard about twelve inches by eighteen inches. You don’t need to be exact—any size will do. In fact, you will most likely be making several of these contraptions of varying sizes.

2. Secure a piece of paper to the center of the cardboard, leaving at least three inches of space to the left and right of your drawing paper.

3. Draw a long horizon line through the center of your drawing paper, extending it all the way off both sides of the cardboard backboard.

4. Draw vanishing points at each end of the horizon line.

5. Put a pushpin into each vanishing point.