Level 1: Week 3: Sketching Like Van Gogh and Perspective

An amazing night of progress, to say the least! We started with a warm-up exercise in 1-point and 2-point perspective--without using rulers! Then everyone loosened their line work, got sketchy and rose to the challenge of the Van Gogh composition. It was awesome to see the shift from tentative pencil lines to full-throttle exploration of bold, expressive strokes! Confidence levels rose dramatically as the 2D surface of the paper was transformed into the illusion of spacial depth.

We'll continue exploring the world of 3D by drawing from real objects next Wednesday night. See you then! --Rob

Val


Alright, Val!! You've done an excellent job of putting 1-point perspective to work in your Van Gogh composition. The angles of the walls and the road converge toward the building in the distance. By showing lighter buildings and the hill on the horizon and darker pencil strokes in the foreground you've successfully shown depth of space. Great use of energetic lines suggesting the form of the large tree and garden area. Really like the shadow of the grass standing against the wall in the foreground. Nice work on the 1 and 2-point perspective sketches. Check the angle of the guidelines for the floating box in the 2-point lesson. Do all they all angle correctly to the vanishing points?



Kirsten


Your Van Gogh sketch does a wonderful job of depicting the illusion of depth of space, Kirsten! Nice work in pulling together the 1-point perspective used to show the angles of the walls and grassy area of the road. What works really well is spacial depth shown by overlapping buildings and trees, especially to the right side of the composition. Also, the delicate balance between darker line strokes in the foreground and lighter strokes toward the horizon effectively suggests spacial depth. The layering of angled and vertical lines on the wall in the garden area and cast shadow on the ground add a nice 3-dimensional point of interest. Cool 1-point and 2-point perspective studies!



Helen


Your inner artist was unleashed in these sketches, Helen!! The 1-point and 2-point perspective studies gave you the understanding needed to launch into a couple of fantastic compositions. The lighter and darker strokes in your Van Gogh are very successful in depicting spacial depth as well as various textures. The illusion of depth is especially effective where you used lighter strokes for the building behind the large tree and the hill in the background. The layering and cross-hatched strokes in the garden area bring it to the foreground, creating depth and interest. And your sketch investigating the atmospheric perspective of the mountains is awesome! We really get a sense of spacial depth with the delicate shading of the lightest mountains in the distance. Check the floating box in the 2-point perspective drawing. Are the guidelines angled correctly to the vanishing points?