I decided to draw a view from a corridor into a kitchen for the parallel perspective drawing. The floor being tiled, I think, was an advantage, although the horizontal spaces between tiles on the inside of the door were too close together. The space is too narrow to fit what is there in the available space. The architraves around the doors on the left are too narrow. Once I’d chosen the vanishing point and drawn in the first parallel line along the dado rail on the right I discovered that many angles were completely wrong, apart from the area below eye level, which isn’t too bad. Before I drew in the receding lines to the vanishing point I knew that some angles were wrong, but I didn’t realize they were so inaccurate! I should have noticed the top of the frames and the bookshelves on the right hand side as these are so obvious to me now.
In the second drawing of the building positioned corner on (two point perspective), with the help of a pencil, I gauged the angles, shapes and proportions of features in relation to other points and angles – particularly the horizontal line at my eye level. I didn’t use a ruler, but a pencil helped with the angle and measurements. Amazingly for me, I think most of it is accurate, apart from the roof line on the left of the high building on the corner, where the receding lines are at too low an angle. The vanishing point is way off the paper, so again I was guessing the angles, but I think they generally look correct.
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| Parallel perspective drawing |
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| Two point perspective drawing |
Using rulers as a guide really helped me to check the accuracy of the angles. Even with the two point perspective where the vanishing points were off the paper, I was able to estimate with a ruler where they were, and to draw in the eye level (horizon line). This is something I doubt I could have managed otherwise, even with a pencil as a substitute.
Although, I wouldn’t want to be tempted to use a ruler to draw straight lines - I’m sure they would appear far too technical looking. By not using a ruler for this purpose the lines may often be wobbly and uneven looking but at least they have far more chance of looking expressive. It is more difficult to judge the correct angles of the horizontal building, window and door lines etc. without a ruler and I found myself having to resort to using a pencil as a substitute to help with this.
