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An open door. |
Now, if we were to draw an open door the problem of angles is still there. But I want you to notice something. In the
previous shelves photo, all the HORIZONTAL lines were perfectly
horizontal, straight and parallel, and they didn't angle
towards each other. Now, in this photo of a door, all the VERTICALS are all perfectly straight, parallel, and vertical, it's the horizontals that are going every which way. It seems that in many
architectural drawings or cityscapes (drawings that depict human-made buildings) either the verticals are ALL
perfectly vertical or the horizontals are ALL perfectly horizontal, rarely are both types of lines perfectly parallel and
straight in the same drawing. Also in the door photo using your standard unit may be a good idea so you will get the proportions
and sizes right. You could use the width of the inside of the door frame as your standard unit because it appears to be a good "middle range width".
Using this measurement, measure the height of the door versus
the height of the door frame and draw according to the
measurements you take. Since the door is ajar, the side with
the knob is closer to you than the side with the hinges, so
the knob-edge will be longer than the hinge-edge.
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Door drawing. |
Try and draw this door. Or, better yet, open a door to the
same angle in the room
you're in and draw it. It's always a better
learning experience to draw from real life rather than
photographs. In real life you're getting the full three dimensions
of an object, and you may be able to better see why the
proportions, angles, and planes look the way they do. As with
the shelves drawing, don't worry too much about how perfectly
straight your lines are, just draw them as best you can. Do,
however, try and get angles, negative spaces, and object sizes
correct as best you can.
As you draw the door noted above, are you drawing the lines and measuring distances between negative spaces and positive spaces? Are you
thinking in terms of lines and shapes that those lines create? If so, you're in the "artist" mode and are staying away from assigning "symbol names" to what it is that you're drawing. This is good - you're
DRAWING!! If you can break down a scene that you want to draw into shapes and the distances between those shapes, and
ALWAYS DRAW WHAT YOU SEE REGARDLESS IF IT "LOOKS
RIGHT", you're doing really well. Complicated subjects that have
a lot of foreshortening and oddly shaped elements will become a breeze because you're no longer worried about "this doesn't look like
a finger", rather you see that "this does look like
his finger". Draw what you see, measure the sizes and distances in the drawing with your "standard unit", and the drawing WILL be great!
Personally, I don't enjoy drawing architectural-like drawings and cityscapes. I'd much rather draw more "organic" forms like people,
animals, and nature. But knowing how to draw with straight lines and angles even if you're doing it freehand without a straightedge, is a vital skill in drawing. Perspective and proportion are much easier to see in
an architectural drawing, but as we get into drawing people you'll see that perspective and proportion are vitally important to achieving a likeness of the person being drawn. But before we do that we've got a few more ideas and exercises to explore - read on.
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