"Your cyber source for artist news and education!" © 1998, 1999, WetCanvas!

Learning How To Draw in three dimensions

Locating something in space
Time:	Allow 40 minutes
Aim:	To introduce the basis of three dimensional drawing and apply to drawing.
Materials:	The sketch pad, HB and 4B pencil, eraser, a ruler if need be.
Notes:	Allow five minutes to for the quick sketch test. Two minutes to do and three to mark. Swap, display and title if necessary. Draw a butterfly on your page in approximately the same position as mine. But where is the butterfly? How far from us, how high above the ground? We have no idea! So to "place" our butterfly, we shall put her in a box or cage. See below ... Now we have a reference, now we can relate the position of the butterfly to something more specific. If we draw a line 'forward' from our butterfly, we can decide where we want our butterfly in relation to the front of our box (point 'a') In a similar fashion, if we project a line up from our butterfly, we can relate the butterfly to the top of our box (point 'b'). But how far up? Since the butterfly is in a set place, point 'b' can be joined by the vertical projection and by the projected line to the left vanishing point. It is as if we sliced through our box and the 'plane' of that slice cut through the middle of the butterfly. Do this again and locate the butterfly on point 'c', the left hand front surface. Such is the method we use to obtain the 'three dimensions' that locate our butterfly in space. Of course we needed to 'reference' the butterfly within a box. Now we have our 'three dimensions'. The bigger butterfly I have introduced is much closer and can be related to the first in a similar manner.
Homework:	Prepare for the next lesson by drawing a top view and side view of a common fork.
Links:	Teacher's Toolbox | Course Index | Part Two Overview | Previous Module | Next Module