Part 3 Project 4 Perspective Exercise 1 Parallel perspective - an interior view

During the past two weeks, I have been working with my upper elementary grades on one point perspective. Some of the drawings to be found online, especially on the Deviant Art site, are insanely complicated.

Initial sketch

I found it interesting that my greatest problem with drawing parallel perspective was judging the relative dimensions of the door. In both of my sketches the door dimensions are just off enough to throw the placement of the furniture inside the room slightly. For the most part, I was able to judge the angle of the orthogonals fairly well, except when is came to the edges of the carpet and the lines of the twin cabinets inside the room. In both sketches, I struggled to get the angles right and the cabinets don't look as tall as they actually are in real life. My second sketch is better, but still not perfect.

Second sketch

Where I had difficulties was in drawing my horizontals straight. In each drawing my horizontals were tipping up towards the right. I know that I have had a lot of trouble with my judging of horizontals since getting multifocals. This is especially noticeable when trying to hang a picture. I used to be able to judge very accurately whether something was horizontal or not, now not so easily.

I definitely found that using a ruler took the guess work out of things, and enabled me to get a far more pleasing perspective. I remember learning about one-point perspective when trying to present it to my high school classes, and being fascinated with how mathematical it can become, especially when working out the placement of tiling that extends parallel to the picture plane. I once tried to teach this to my students, and got them horribly confused.

Fig. 1. Giacometti, Alberto.

[View of the garden of Villa Natacha,

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferret] 1951.

When it comes to interior sketches, among my favorites are the sensitive, loose drawings of Alberto Giacometti. I searched through the images to be found on Fondation Alberto et Jeanette Giacometti for images with parallel perspective and found this one called, [View of the garden of Villa Natacha, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat] (see Fig. 1). What I love about it is the exploratory manner in which he has sensed the one-point perspective. Living in a country surrounded by palm trees, I can also relate to the frondy nature of his palm tree.

Just looking through Alberto Giacometti's sketches makes me realize how much I am losing out on by not being able to devote so much time to exploratory sketches. His sketches are inspirational.

List of Illustrations

Figure 1. Giacometti, Alberto (1951) [View of the garden of Villa Natacha, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferret]. [Lithographic pencil on transfer paper]. 19,64 x 12,79 in. Private Collection. © Giacometti Estate (Fondation Giacometti, Paris and ADAGP, Paris) 2016.