A Bit About Drawing

After posting I got some Questions.....
....about this drawing.  Most were about detail, perspective, markers, perspective, using white gouache, perspective, drawing with a pen and perspective.  That about covers it, I think.

There was a theme.

So let's break it down.

When drawing something....anything.... I often try to find a 'yardstick' to work from.  In this case it was that lamppost in the foreground.

It was the first thing drawn on the page because I knew I could hang everything else off of it.  Knowing perspective can be handy when getting in trouble but most of the time I ignore it....like in this case.  Once I had the post visualized on the page and then drawn in I looked at the larger scene to find where other objects 'hung' off that pole.

The background is dimmed in this image but you can see where different parts intersect the lamppost, like here:

The ruler is established.  Then the lines were drawn in.  In this image I tried to erase everything but the original drawing but it became too time consuming to get them all.....  you can get the idea:

That was followed by 30% and 60% grey toned markers (see my book on Sketching With Valued Markers):

And finally 80% grey marker and white gouache diluted with water to different consistencies and, therefore, different values.  I had a bottle of drinking water and a small brush but no palette...so I used the palm of my hand.

Magic happened.

The whole thing is based on using that lamppost as a drawing 'ruler'.  The concept of perspective didn't enter my mind....but where things lined up with that lamppost plus relative vertical and horizontal distances did.

Using these ideas greatly simplifies what looks to be a complicated scene to get on paper.

I explored this 'ruler' idea in another blog about drawing in Italy from last September HERE.

If you are interested in perspective (it does come in handy) the best book I've found is from a man who used to live in Seattle named Norling.  It's only $6 at Amazon HERE and you might be able to find it used elsewhere.  It's been around a bit but does a good job of explaining things simply.

Thanks for asking the questions.