Exercise: Linear Perspective

“Red Lights Fleet Street”

For this exercise, I sketched the view from Ludgate Hill up Fleet Street in the city (just around the corner from where I work so a view I know well).  Even though at first it looks reasonably flat, the land slopes down towards Ludgate Circus crossroads and then up again in Fleet Street heading towards Aldgate and the Law Courts.

The sketch was a simple A5 sketch in black biro, trying to get a sense of the space rather than strictly following all the lines of perspective as (with so many buildings at different heights, angles and ages), all the lines do not converge at the same point anyway in this view. 

After starting this exercises, I read an article in Artists & Illustrators (October 2012 issue) by artist Andrew Hood entitled “Sketching for Abstracts”.  He stated that “it’s this very familiarity that allows me to be more expressive” so I thought this view I was very familiar with would be a good starting point to be more open and expressive.  Hood’s top tips included:

• Choose the palette you want.  Interpreting the real colours of your subject will help you personalise your work and further abstract the subject.
• Put the original sketch to one side.  The final step towards abstraction is leaving the reference material behind.

Whilst I didn’t want to fully abstract this scene, I did want to be looser as I feel the straight lines and formality of buildings can influence you to be too tight and fiddly.  And, as I had just done a monochrome sketch, I wanted to impose my own colour on this view (not a fan of beige, brown and grey at the best of times!).

I translated my A5 sketch in to an A3 line and wash drawing, using an artline pen, watercolour and oil pastel.  The drawing was completed first, exaggerating the perspective slightly to lengthen the road and give a greater sense of distance.  Before applying washes of watercolour, I used oil pastels both as a white resist (on some buildings and the vans) as well as applying blue and yellow pastels to enhance the skyline.  The paper was then wetted and watercolour dropped in, making sure left side (in shadow) was much darker than the right.  Finally, the red lights were added (cars and traffic lights) and extra red watercolour splattered on the central area.  Once dry I rubbed out some of the oil pastel with turps which left an interesting effect in the sky where the watercolour had dried around the pastel.

What I particularly like about this sketch is the bright colour of the sky contrasted with the stark black line detail of the rest of the painting and the contrasting blue/purple against the yellows used.

Even though this worked well on the cartridge paper, it has buckled a lot because of the water content, and I know it is difficult to apply acrylic / oil to paper because it soaks in so quickly (unlike watercolour which spreads very easily).  I therefore did some experiments on Georgian oil painting paper which has a much closer weave than canvas.

On this study, I firstly applied black acrylic using a filbert (very dry brush) and a twig dipped in the black acrylic, as well as a drawing pen and ink, followed by a wash of transparent purple acrylic.  Pale yellow and 2 x blue oil pastels on the skyline which I then rubbed away slightly with turps.  I then applied white oil directly to the canvas and then pulled away with a credit card (which also picked up the wet yellow underneath).  The think I felt didn’t work so well on this was that the oil pastel doesn’t resist the acrylic as well as watercolour to give the interesting mottled effect in the sky.

I approached the final painting in the same way as the sketch, applying the line drawing using the twig dipped in black acrylic to draw, followed by the oil pastel, acrylic washes and final impasto oil detail.

I really like this looseness and colour in this painting.  Using the monochrome sketch with limited detail allow me free rein to impose my own feel on the view – although some of the detail on the building is from memory anyway.

While I am pleased with the finished painting, I think the line and wash sketch has more character.  I looked at both together and decided this was mainly due to the pen drawing which is much finer and has more variety of marks.   I found it much more difficult to paint the lines with the twig than with a pen; you have much less control over the marks and the twig seemed to have a life of its own, bending in the middle sometimes to give more random lines!  Looking at it when finished, I think I should have completed more detail on the buildings on the right hand side, especially the first couple from the corner, and the area below this looks a little bare.  The buildings on the left are more successful.  Will also have to do more experiments with acrylics/oils to get more interesting backgrounds.

I like the contrast between the bright colour and white areas of blank canvas which I more or less managed to keep clean.  I think the fading away works, although I am not sure whether the buildings on the left finish a little abruptly; will think about this over the next few days and may add a few more lines.

On a technical point, I found the paper still buckled quite a lot so next time I try something with very wet paint, I will try stretching it like you do with watercolour to see if this works with oil painting paper!

In terms of perspective, the only thing I think is probably out is the first building on the right (the top should have more of an acute angle).  As I stated, even though this was a perspective exercises, I didn’t want to get too controlled with the lines/using rulers, etc, as it would then be too sterile.  And I think the painting does work in terms of a perspective exercise; the painting gives a strong sense of recession with the buildings fading away around the corner, as well as the differences in scale (cars and people).

One thing I did learn from this exercise was the benefits of line & wash (and oil pastels) for sketching.  I also have a few neocolour crayons so will try these with watercolour / line (as they are water soluble, could get some interesting results).

Aerial Perspective

We are asked to create a simple landscape using the three devices of aerial perspective:

• Controlled loss of focus and fading outlines
• A loss of colour saturation
• Colour temperature

To use all the devices of aerial perspective, you really need a landscape where you can see a long way into the distance.  As I live in Essex (second flattest county!) there are not that many views where you can really see into the distance.  However, I did find a view whilst walking my dog – from Lincewood in Langdon Hills Country Park over the fields towards the Thames Estuary and London.

The day I did my sketches was very cold and very grey, and so there was very little colour in the scene (basically grey, more grey with hints of dark brown) so I was happy to do pencil sketches as the scene in front of me was basically monochrome anyway.

I found a spot where the woods make way for open farmland, with a large oak tree and smaller shrubs either side, marking the edge of the wood.  I did two quick A5 sketches, one either side of the tree.  I felt the first sketch had more options – the view was more open and there was a clear sense of foreground, middle ground and distance.

I decided to create a larger, A4 sketch in charcoal to check my composition and look at the tonal balance.  Colour wise, as stated above, the view was monochromatic, so I had free rein to create my own colour without being too influenced by the local colour.  Reviewing this, I have the horizon line too high so need to bring this down the canvas further in order to achieve a sense of distance.

I prepared my canvas by first covering with a layer of acrylic texture paste, applied with loose brushstrokes to add texture, followed by a ground of transparent burnt umber (I didn’t want any white to show through the paint so decided a neutral earth tone would work well).

I worked top-down, using a large, rough round brush to dab and scumble the paint onto the canvas (mainly to avoid being too tight and fiddly).  The sky was created using very pale beiges, greys and blue.

I carried on using the same technique as I worked down the canvas – beginning with very blue tones and increasing the colour saturation and temperature as I moved towards the foreground.  Although the twigs and tree were, in fact, a very dark brown, I added Light Red and Cadmium Red to my Burnt Umber to further warm the colour (as well as using the Light Red for the ploughed field and Cadmium Red in the twigs).

The foreground was created using small brushstrokes and a mix of the 3 browns, a dark grey and a little green.  Painting at this stage below (need to allow the paint to dry before finishing tree).

Finished painting:

Reviewing this, a couple of things stood out:

• the colours in the sky seem more discernable after the tree was painted than before.  I think it is because the branches break up the space and so you actually look at the different areas and pick up the colours, rather than seeing the area as a whole.
• The tree is more effective when painted over the sky (i.e. light colour) than the field because I was using transparent paint, the brushstrokes are more visible and glazing comes into play.

Also, using the light brown ground added a hazy atmosphere to the sky where it shows through, and the same goes for the ground showing through on the distant land.  If I had left this white, it would be very jarring and obvious but the brown blends into the fields.

In terms of effectiveness, I do think you need all three devices of aerial perspective to get the greatest sense of distance, although I would focus on colour temperature and controlled loss of focus/contrast the most.  While fading out saturated colours is important, I have seen landscapes where there are brighter and/or darker colours in the background and the loss of focus/scale is used to give the sense of distance (e.g Van Gogh frequently used as bright colours in the background as the foreground but would concentrate on colour temperature, making the distance blue and/or purple). 

Working from a photograph

We are asked to choose a photograph with plenty of space and either tall trees or distant mountains and, rather than accepting the composition of the photograph, to seek alternatives.

As my reference for this exercise, I have chosen three photographs taken last summer in Silverdale, North Lancashire, an area I know well having grown up there.  Silverdale is in an area of outstanding natural beauty, with limestone crags, woods and views looking out across Morecambe Bay.  I took these photographs on a sunny summer’s day while walking about the coast paths, overlooking the bay towards the hills of the Lake District. 

The main reference photograph is of three sheep in a field with long grass and trees on the edge of the crag overlooking the bay.  I chose this because of the interest of the sheep in the field, one of them looking directly at me, its shape emphasised by the contrast of the dark trees / shrubs behind.

My notes/thoughts from looking at this photo:

• Sheep as the focal point (contrast with trees/grass
• Main horizontal (grass line) too central, bisects the composition
• Too much grass in the foreground (move base line up?)
• Background – not expansive enough (other photos – strong horizontals; horizon, layers of sand, water, clouds, hills)
• Too many trees? Good strong diagonal but perhaps too solid – more of a view over bay
• Query re-arrange composition of sheep
• Shape of canvas – longer rectangle to emphasise horizontals?

I therefore also included two further photographs as references

The second is take from the same field, with the view turned further north to include the Lakeland hills and view over the sands with the Kent channel (one of the rivers than runs into the Bay) in the foreground.  Morecambe Bay is unusual in that the tide comes in around the outside of the Bay first, leaving the flat sands in the centre (hence the sirens which go off to warn of the incoming tide) so there is frequently water round the outside but not in the centre of the Bay.

The third photograph is taken from the Shore (can’t be called a beach because it is marsh grass, mud and stone!) looking out over the expanse of the bay with clear blue skies and fluffy clouds.

I drew an armature over my first photograph (moving the baseline up) to get an idea of the basic composition of the original photo.  As originally noted, the line of the trees roughly followed the main left-to-right diagonal, the grass line was now roughly on the 1/3 line with a horizontal on the sands forming the 2/3 line.

Working from this, I drew an armature onto an A4 sheet and then played with the composition, so the sheep looking at me was on the bisection of the vertical and horizontal 1/3 line (strongest tonal contrast with dark shrubs behind.  I also placed the horizon on the 2/3 line and the mid line of the clouds on the ¾ line.  Originally, I only had the two left-hand sheep but did include the third (again on the bisection of the 1/3 horizontal and 2/3 vertical) as I felt it improved the composition.  I wasn’t sure about the single tree on the 2/3 horizontal so drew the rest of the composition, photographed it and then drew the tree in.  I decided against including it because I think it closes in the view too much and blocks out the view over the Bay.

After drawing this, I decided to narrow the canvas slightly to make is accentuate the horizontals in the drawing.  I prepared my canvas by applying wide masking tape top and bottom, and applied a wash of bright pink/purple acrylic (mix violet/magenta), both to give a darker tone for the whites/pale blues to work against, and also to create an overall brightness.  I then drew in the main lines of the armature I had worked my composition to for accuracy but did not draw in any of the features.

Oil colours used were French Ultramarine, Prussian Blue, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Red (Hue), Payne’s Grey and white.  A number of greens were mixed for the trees using Ultramarine and Prussian Blue, adding Lemon Yellow, White and an orange mixed from the Cadmium Red and Lemon Yellow to neutralise the brightest of the greens.

The grass shade was created by mixing the brightest green with the pale terracotta used for the sands.

I applied the majority of the paint with a palette knife to begin with to avoid becoming too fussy, working from my drawing rather than the photographs.  I used the photo as a colour reference (mainly for sands / grass) rather than for detail.  Once applied, I smoothed some of the paint with a large brush (mainly for the sands/water area) to give a smoother, more reflective surface.  The sheep were painted using white and the sand colour with a little blue for stronger shadow areas.

Painting after first session:

Obviously this will take quite a while to dry because of the thickness of the paint.  Reviewing this, I need to:

• Make sure the horizon line is straight – I think the problem here is not especially the horizon line, but that the distant hills are almost the same shade as the water, so I need to make the hills darker to delineate the space and make the horizon clear.
• White highlights need to be added to the water as a reflection – dry brush or possibly palette knife, making sure highlights on water areas not sand
• Add branches/tree trunks where view through tree
• Further colour / highlights on trees / shrubs when dry (plus adding few “spaces” in greenery – currently too solid.
• Think about shore area on far left – currently a bit nondescript, may have to define a bit, but will wait until other areas finished to see if it looks odd.
• Further details on sheep
• Very fine lines in grass?  Currently a bit bland.Think about colour on sands – possibly too prominent, darken sand / glaze over sheer blue?

Finished painting.  I decided against changing the foreground grass because I felt I would start getting too fiddly and overcomplicate it. 

In order to review we are asked:

In what ways did you depart from the photo? I departed from the main reference photo by widening the view and including details from other photographs to include more of the bay area, Lakeland hills and sky (sea / sky was quite non-descript in the original photo).  I also altered the composition by changing the treeline and moving the sheep to fit the composition.

Why did you make that choice?  I wanted to give the scene more of a sense of space and distance that would have been lacking if adhering strictly to the photograph.  Adding the Lakeland hills (which are, I think, slightly too dark and so need lightening) gives a sense that you are actually in a bay.

Did you produce a painting that satisfied you or were you over-influenced by the photo?  Once I had drawn my sketch, I used this for tonal values and composition, only referring to the photography for colour references (sand, sea and grass) and details of the form/shadows on the sheep.