CALL 646 - 508 - 7645 to R.S.V.P for our Workshops and Lectures.
Join our mailing list to stay informed of demonstrations and workshops offered by some of the country's leading artists. Previous artists include; Tony Ryder, Jon DeMartin, Steven Assael, Juliette Aristides and more.
On Painting: “Perspective is the best guide to the art of painting.” –Leonardo daVinci
This Lecture/Workshop is an introduction to linear perspective, which is the intellectual basis for representationist thought and spatial illusionism. Historically, the rewarding and unique pleasures of perspective’s application have been documented in oil, ink, or clay. The “delightful and noble art” of linear perspective is the flesh, heart, and soul of classic pictorial space, from placing the objects in a still life to the disposition of figures in a composition. This is done not necessarily by projecting a diagram but by being able to intuitively and plausibly place the components of a composition in space.
This lecture and workshop will cover the essentials of perspective: including
one–, two– and three–point perspective, how to set up a perspective template, and conclude by setting up a two–point perspective diagram for a skull. For the interested student this workshop demonstrates the principles and means for which the artist may improve independently in his or her own work.
Morning Session 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Introduction to Linear Perspective. Lecture on representationist pictorial space in Western Art. An explanation of the Vanishing Traces known as the Eye-level Line and Center Line; the Cone of Vision, the Eye or Station Point, the Picture Plane, the Figure, Vanishing Points and Measuring Points. The layout of the perspective plates: plan & elevation, eye-level line, center line, cone of vision, and eye.
- Start: Free-hand drawing exercises: boxes in space. Introduction to One–Point Perspective.
- Plate One: draw boxes that are parallel to the picture plane and that are above, below and at the level of the eye-level line. Draw objects in one–point perspective.
Afternoon Session 2p.m. - 5 p.m.
Introduction to Two–Point Perspective. The layout of a chessboard-like grid in one-point perspective and how to draw all your objects into pictorial space. The use of linear perspective in disposition of figures in pictorial space.
- Plate Two: Grid in one–point perspective and objects placed in two-point perspective on that grid.
- Plate Three: Skull in two–point perspective.
Selected Referenced Readings:
- Basic Perspective Drawing, A Visual Approach, by John Montague, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985.
- Perspective for Artists, by Rex Vicat Cole, Dover Press, 1976.
- Modern Perspective: A Treatise, by William R. Ware, Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1882.
- Complete Perspective Course, by J. Humphrey Spanton, London: MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1900.
- The Mirror, The Window, and the Telescope, by Samuel Y. Edgerton, Cornell University Press, 2009.
