TIP 8/10: Towers are like Wedding Cakes

Only three more to go! Here is sketching tip #8 of 10...

Sketching Tip #8: Towers are like Wedding Cakes!

Imagine a wedding cake...if one layer is off-center from the one below it, eventually we'd get a tragic cake collapse and wedding disaster!

Same for Towers. I often see towers in sketches that somehow look a little off. The reason: it's layers are not stacked properly in perspective!

So how to better sketch a tower? I'll show you two ways.

Method 1 -- find the center of the tower.
     As in wedding cakes, it's important to establish where the center of the tower is in order to draw it properly. We do this in perspective by using your skills from middle school geometry class:  drawing diagonals.
     If you think of the forms as transparent, this is much easier. I look at a tower and I think of a stack of 3-d blocks, usually getting smaller/narrower toward the top. I often lightly draw in the entire center line up the arch for reference. You can be sure whatever detail is at the very top of the tower, it sits on top of your center line!

Venice in 2015, sketching what may be one of the most famous towers in the world, the Campanile in the Piazza San Marco.

Here I am on the left, sitting in spot of great honor with the incredible Marc Taro Holmes and his friend and mind-boggling illustrator, Sean Andrew Murray. HA! No pressure at all !?!?

You can see how I don't just see the face of the sides of the tower, I see it as a stack of 3-dimensional blocks. 

Remember one or both sides of your tower will go to the vanishing point/s on your eye level.

Consider, each face of the tower steps inward toward the center from one layer to the next.

And here are the steps I use to draw the tower:
1 -- Start with the blocks, as above.
2 -- Use diagonals to find the center of each block.
3 -- draw in your center line all the way to the top of the tower.
4 -- Here, once I find the top of the center line, I can just connect it to the corners to get the pyramid shape at the top. This is easier because the faces of the pyramid are sloped.

I don't always draw every level like this, but it's important to understand this concept when you sketch a tower.

Method 2 -- Use Edges
     In reality, I probably use a combination of methods 1 and 2. This way is definitely easier... I look at the edges and where they are relative to each other. Examine how much each is set in from the level below it. 
     And at the end, I look at where the top of the tower is relative to the layers below, just to check I've got it right.

In this sketch of a tower at the Mezquita in Córdoba, Spain, you can see 

how each corner is set in from the one below it. An easy way to draw 

towers, although be careful you don't pull the layers off center!

Hopefully, one or both of these methods will help you see towers a little differently, and draw them better!

TIP 6/10: Sloped Roofs in Perspective

Sketching Tip #6:  Sloped Roofs in Perspective

Sketching a sloped roof, or any sloped surface, can be a real challenge. I pretty much always draw lines down the slope of the roof so that the angle of the roof reads, no matter what the roof material is. The clearest way to understand this is to look at tile roofs with ridges and valleys, like this one at Brunelleschi's  Pazzi Chapel in Florence in this classic, one-point perspective view.

Step one is to find the vanishing point and your eye level for most of the parallel horizontal building and ground lines. My eye level line was very low, close to the ground, and the VP just to the right of center.

To draw the slope of the roof correctly, the first line I draw on the sloped roof is a true vertical line (in yellow) directly above my vanishing point at eye level... yep, straight up and down right over my vanishing point! 
Then, I know that all the ridges and valleys to the left of this line angle in one direction, and all the lines to the right of this vertical line angle in the other direction. The farther the line is away from my vertical, the flatter the angle.  I usually eye-ball this. 
Take a look...

So what is really going on here? Remember that lines that are parallel to each other converge to the same vanishing point, so since the roof is angled, it goes to its own vanishing point in the sky...

Remember this tip: 
if a surface tilts UP and away from you, the Vanishing Point also tilts UP.
The part that most people don't realize is that the vanishing point for the slope is directly over your eye level vanishing point!!

This principle is also true for 2-point perspectives, but it's easiest to see in a 1-point view.

Look at this view from Florence and see if you can find the vanishing point and how I drew the tile roofs!

TIP 1/10: LONG LINES

Welcome to a series of ten blog posts with tips for better sketching!

#1: Long Lines

Let's start at the beginning, the foundation of any sketch... a good line! A good line not only defines shapes and detail, it conveys a sense of energy and personality. Let's talk about how to make LONG LINES, as this can be a challenge when working on location or in a sketchbook.

Method 1-- USE A STRAIGHT EDGE FOR SPEED
Anyone who has seen me sketch knows I rely on a straight edge for making long and accurate lines at the beginning of a sketch. I use an  8" 30/60 degree Architect's Triangle that I carry in my waterproof zipper bag with my pencil and sketchbook.

Using this tool started for me with this sketch, at Fatehpur Sikri near Agra, India in 2011.

Looking at this amazing expanse of space and architecture, I was faced with a huge sketch some 24' wide. I struggled quite a bit with getting long lines...it was taking forever and frankly, they looked awful! In a moment of desperation, I pulled out a small triangle I was carrying, and voilá, I could snap long, straight lines QUICKLY! Speed is the key. I do this at the beginning of a sketch to SPEED UP and also add energy and some accuracy to my line quality. 

Try:
-- Using LIGHT lines at the beginning, architects call them "construction lines", as you lay down the foundation of your sketch.

--I use the straight edge at the beginning of my sketch to set up the big shapes in perspective, then I put it away and just DRAW. Drawing without the straight edge is important for adding character to your drawing as it imbues your sketch with the qualities of your unique hand!

--Work quickly. If you find using this tool slows you down, then ditch it! It's not perfection, it's about speed.

These are the foundation lines of my chiesa sketch in Civita di Bagnoregio, where I teach a workshop every summer.

You can see the long, straight lines done at the beginning of the sketch, then how I go over those guidelines with freehand lines to add the information and character. You can also see my trusty triangle and pencil.

Method 2: CLOSE BUT NOT TOUCHING
Our hands and arms naturally want to make long lines that are curved, based on the radius of our arms. We can learn to compensate for this curve by intentionally drawing UP as the line gets longer, or an easier and more successful way is to draw lines in segments.

In the piazza of the Italian town of Casaprotta, zoom in and you can see the long lines of the border are actually drawn in segments. Instead of OVERLAPPING the line, which makes the overlap look really obvious, pick up your pencil or pen and ever so slightly separate the lines with a tiny bit of space. Your eye will naturally connect the two, and you won't perceive the gap!

Long lines of the border are drawn in segments to keep the long line straight! Wiggles are OK and can add energy to the line.

Below, you can see how the long line is made in slightly separated segments, and the lower line tends to show the overlap. These are drawn with a .5 mechanical pencil, a fine line, so it is a little hard to see these difference, but with a thicker pencil or pen, they become very obvious!!

Try using these methods to draw long lines in your next sketch!

Here they come, 10 Top Sketching Tips

Are you ready?

To jumpstart summer sketching in the northern parts of the world, and because the Urban Sketchers symposium starts in about 3 weeks (so sorry not to see everyone this year, but look for me in Asia in October!), I'm launching a series of 10 posts with my favorite 10 sketching and perspective tips!

I often see lots of the same questions and challenges come up time and again in workshops, so I decided to collect some of my responses into these posts. 

Thanks to my friends Marc Taro Holmes, Liz Steel, and Suhita Shirodkar who did a month(!) of beautiful painting sketches called "Direct to Watercolor", you are my inspiration for this.

And of course, I invite you to sign up for future blog posts.

Thanks for your interest --  I hope you find these helpful!
Stephanie

What I Learned about Sketching on a Trip to India, Part 1

Namaste. For 3.5 weeks in October/November, I visited India for a second time. The first trip was in 2011, and the sketchbooks I filled on that trip have sparked so many wonderful opportunities to travel and teach. My parents also lived here before I was born, so India holds a special place in my heart. There are so many utterly amazing sights and colors at every turn--all of life is here.

I set out to sketch my way across central and southern India... and wow, did I learn a lot, just not what I thought I would learn! The sketching did not turn out as I expected...and while very frustrating at the time, that in itself was a good learning experience. That frustration has helped me to figure out what works for me and what doesn't. 

I posted ALL 50 sketches in order on Instagram  @stephanieabower and photos at @stephanieabower.fotos, including lots of sketches I really don't like. Might not be smart to tip my cards like that, but it's all a process, right? This is how we learn and grow. 

To that end, here is some of what I learned in a series of posts!


1.  Don't bring everything--EDIT your supplies and keep everything light.

Varanasi has to be one of the most amazing cities in the world, certainly one of the oldest. At breakfast on the roof of the B&B, I'd sketch the river walking up.

Yep, I brought too much paper, which weighs a ton to carry. I ended up filling only one Pentalic 7" x 10" sketchbook (which worked perfectly when I put multiple images across two pages) and one block of Fluid watercolor paper, 8"x16" for larger sketches. I also was not allowed to use my easel and tripod many places, so luckily, I brought a large piece of corrugated plastic to which I just clipped everything, holding it all in my lap for painting. It worked pretty well and was much lighter. 

I have to sit when I sketch, so my super light Tribe Provisions 3-leg stool was essential and often doubled as an easel when I sat on the ground. Where the ground was uneven or dirty, I had a small, virtually weightless square of foam to sit on. I lugged pens and ink but always just went back to pencil. Luckily, a little bit of watercolor goes a long way, so I didn't have to bring much paint. I put everything into one backpack and one carry on!

Old City, Varanasi. Sketching drew a crowd and constant selfie requests everywhere we went. Here I am using the large corrugated plastic base with everything clipped to it, resting on my bag in my lap. I cut a hole to hold the medicine bottle water container.