Thursday Art group - Session 25


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Illusion and Deception (3)

This week, we had a third look at illusion and deception in art.

The brief for this session, was to draw an object to give the appearance of it being free-standing when viewed from one specific angle. (Mouseover images to view). This is not an easy exercise for the novice, but by the latter half of the session, everyone was beinning to realise both what was involved and also how to improve next time.

Getting used to drawing the difference between an image that looks three-dimensional on a flat paper and one that seems to grow upwards and out from a flat paper, are very different.



Stan's drawing of this tub works brilliantly because of the delicacy of its execution. With minimal pencil work, he has created a drawing that really evokes the lightness and transparency of the thin plastic, so much so, that I can almost flick it away with my finger... Having said this, once it is viewed at a lower angle, a changed perspective suddenly morphs it into more of a tin of Tuna.

Stan - plastic tub

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Mags began by drawing her sphere in a normal way. This is her second drawing, accepting the distortions of the viewed object. This rollover image is a great example of the difficulty of producing a perfect sphere using this technique. I think with a little more time, Mags would have perfected it.

Mags - sphere




Nan's drawing is a good example of how distorted an object has to be to maintain its height. The glass looks tall enough in the first image... but then shrinks quite considerably... Maintaining the lines of an object is also something that is demonstrated in these images.

Nan - glass

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Tracy's glass with her own brilliant, forced perspective.

Tracy - glass

 


Kathy certainly realised the need for distortion in this exercise and also produced a very nicely shaded drawing with shadows. She then used the cutting-out technique to enhance the illusion

Kathy - glass





Vee completed this very competent drawing and enhanced it with her use of a dark background. Ideally, this is how the glass should look in the full illusion, but you can see from the rollover image, that it could have been stretched taller.

Vee - glass






Tracy's glass is well drawn with good reflection and shading.

Tracy - glass

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Tracy's complete forced perspective photograph works well.

Tracy - glass with forced perspective
Techniques suggested

This exercise works best, when the following are employed:

1. Maintaining a vertical pencil.

2. Placing the object on the paper and then drawing around it whilst maintaining the desired angle of perspective - allowing pencil marks to extend beyond the object in eye view.

3. Half-closing the eyes, or even closing one eye, whilst looking at the object's vertical and horizontal lines.


Observations

This exercise is quite literally, more than meets the eye. Adjusting to a different way of looking throws up challenges where oberservation can be at odds with mental reasoning.

We began the session by leaving people to draw with the object in front of them. However, on reflection, I think we could have started with the object on the paper and drawing lines around it from our viewpoint. This would have quickly shown the distortion of the perspective required to gain the desired result.




Lorraine and Rebbeca were away this session.

And here's a Rubik cube version:



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