Thursday 11 April 2013

Why It's Good To Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Buildings are my downfall - buildings and cars.  Anything requiring precise perspective has me stumped.  I think it's a form of image dyslexia (I know that's a contradiction of terms, but you get the gist!)  I can sit there and draw a building for hours and think it looks fine, until someone with a better handle on perspective comes along and points out that just about every line is wrong. 

So to take on a cityscape was a bit daunting to say the least, but I wanted it to be part of the background for a picture that's been in my head since last year.  This is the view from the stands at the equestrian event at the Paralympics last year.  I want it to be an integral part of a montage of images from that day - the rest of the paper will be filled with horses and riders - much more my cup of tea! Hopefully they will detract from any glaring errors in the buildings...

This is being painted in watercolour with a Sharpie liquid pencil being used rather than an ink pen for drawn detail - I like the fact it is a bit more subtle than ink - plus I can rub out any mistakes up to two days after they have been made.

Despite making me work very hard and draw lots of straight lines, I am thoroughly enjoying this - feels very good to do something different for a change.

4 comments:

Magpie Magic said...

Looks good so far and I can't see any glaring perspective mistakes, however, I have the same type of image dyslexia. LOL xoxo

Sue Doran said...

I don't think perspective has to be perfect in order to make a good image - misusing perspective - especially in and turning it into a virtue is surely far more interesting! Anyone that has the temerity to point out to an ARTIST that their perspective is out could be just missing the point of the composition and needs to be dumped in the same bag as your old art teacher! I look forward to seeing how this project progresses.

Caroline B said...

Yes but Sue,you know by now what a finicky perfectionist I am! Sometimes a house should look like a house not a fairground attraction! However,for this picture it's the overall impression I'm after so am not too worried - it's the horses I want to have the main focus. You're not the only one interested in seeing how it progresses, this is a bit of a change in style for me,so I have no idea if it will work or not!

Sue Doran said...

:-) Good luck!