Sunday, October 29, 2017

Shopfront Perspective

I chose pencil and gray wash for drawing these storefronts in New York state. The perspective is slightly off-angle, with remote vanishing point for the facades far to the right.  



To keep all those gently sloping lines in relationship to each other, I drew a grid of preliminary guidelines, starting with the eye level (which runs through the middle of the shop windows).

The other key foundational line is the line at the top of the building. You can still see that light guideline near the top of the cornice of the Bauer building. The intermediate lines of the facade are interpolated between those two lines.


When composing a picture with a storefront or any architecture, one choice that you have to make early on is whether to paint it straight-on in one point perspective (where all the horizontals of the facade stay horizontal), or whether to introduce some convergence.
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Previously on GJ: Perspective Tip

4 comments:

  1. Nice drawing, James! Could you fill us in on what details, etc, you might have left out or changed slightly for the sake of the drawing? (How would it compare to a photo taken at the same time?) Also, are the light diagonal lines in the storefront area part of your perspective line setup? Thanks!

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  2. This is a fine drawn example with all kinds of reflecting windows, showing their half-hidden, almost mysterious contents.

    You'd hardly get this sort of effect with a photograph, IMO.

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  3. Rich, I competely agree. And I like how the detail is placed strategically, and less detail is shown at the edges. This should be a link to the street view. Great little town in a beautiful setting. https://earth.app.goo.gl/qXnr

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  4. The previous link was from the android Google Earth App, and this one is from their android Maps App -(does the same link work on iPhones?) I'm hoping it directs to the store as I hope it will. There is so much visual information out there, and it is so refreshing to have it distilled and curated in a sketch! Thanks, James. 117 NY-145
    https://goo.gl/maps/JrFPnmRkZNm

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