Draw the line: put things in perspective

Watercolor, perspective, painting by Inese Poga

Purpose of linear perspective in painting

Perspective in art is much easier to implement than perspective in life. In fact, there is nothing much to it as far as we are aware of  how it works and what it does for a painting or drawing. Linear perspective creates depth and dimension in any drawing and painting which deals with suitable subject. Traditional linear perspective uses size, overlap of objects and their placement in composition, as well as convergence of lines.

Black pen drawing of simplified 2-point perspective building

Where to use it

If you love landscape, street scenes, rural scenes with farms and barns, simple roads, streams or rivers and so forth, you will need to implement linear and atmospheric perspective because they both contribute to dimension and volume of your painting. You will also use color values accordingly to perspective principles. If you are drawing and painting outdoors, you are most likely applying some perspective already.

Old countryside house in pen and watercolor, 18 x 12 in or 46 x 30.5 cm

Vanishing points and front view

Some people are confused: how many vanishing points to use: 1, 2 or even more? The answer is that will depend on the placement of your shapes and forms on different planes. 1-point perspective uses 1 vanishing point on the horizon or reference line. Horizon line can be called eye-level, but I like to call it reference line. You have to remember that vertical lines are parallel to the sides of your paper (if it’s straight) to make look building stand up correctly. Horizontal line creates 90 degree angle with the vertical line in front view. Horizontal lines of front view are parallel to the bottom and top of your paper. Therefore, in 1-point perspective, the straight lines at the bottom of your building and corresponding lines higher up will always create a 90 degree angle with the vertical line.

1-point perspective in landscape

Most often, we use 1-point perspective with roads, streams, tree and fence lines and buildings on both or one side of a road, that is, with views where something disappears in the distance. That creates an easy perceivable and visually attractive composition which is a breeze to create. In 1-point perspective, all lines which lead into distance, meet in the vanishing point. The front angles of the building on the respective plane are 90 degree angles. It sounds more complicated than it is when you draw it. Start with closest end of the building, drawing a rectangle. Connect the points on one vertical line (in my case the left side where I mark height of any element) to the vanishing point.

Pen and watercolor wash of barn, 16 x 12 in or 41 x 30.5 cm

2-point perspective uses respectively 2 vanishing points.

My drawing of neighbor’s house

Plein-air drawing, 2-point perspective. Photo does not show all lines correctly since camera draws the front edge closer. To draw it correctly, vanishing points on reference line are placed outside the drawing. That we do always when the  subject is large. I usually draw intuitively since I know where approximately these lines meet and where the vanishing points are. Starting out? Mark up vanishing points on each side and connect with respective points on vertical lines. I teach this all in my private classes because it is simply not easy to describe.

Pen and watercolor 2-point perspective sketch, it was mostly done outdoors, since this building is next to my studio entrance.

Many buildings in a landscape or street scene

When drawing close-ups of buildings or placing many scattered buildings in composition, we use rather 2-point (angular) perspective. We use drawing separate buildings most often 2 vanishing points. We adjust the eye level or reference line placement as needed. It can be higher or lower depending on your view. We can move it up or down, and we should use this feature in our favor. That will allow achieving plenty of depth and dimension.

3 vanishing points in one-point or two-point perspective

When some buildings are close, some distant or scattered all around, you could use 3 vanishing points. It does not mean that your drawing becomes extremely complex. It means that you will have freedom to place things in your composition wherever you want them.

Where to place rooftop?

Often, demo drawings that involve 2-point perspective do not explain that the rooftop line runs through one vanishing point. That was also the most confusing part for students since they had a problem placing the roofline where it belongs. Please enjoy the recent paintings and sketches which involve perspective. I will prepare online materials for understanding better how to create linear perspective in drawing or painting.

Perpendicular and parallel lines

The most important aspect is to understand what lines are perpendicular, what parallel, what is obtuse angle, right angle and acute angle. Remembering basics of geometry is really helpful because perspective in drawing is simply achieved once you know how to create it. I am posting some of my recent works that involve creating perspective to illustrate the concept.

Uphill, watercolor painting of rural house, size of this painting is 21.5 x 16.5 in or 54.5 x 42 cm

Outdoor painting

Many drawings, sketches and watercolor paintings are done outdoors or plein-air. Perspective is an important part of any painting, sketch or drawing which displays buildings, street views, roads, fences, bridges and similar subjects. Learning how to create perspective is not difficult or overwhelming. You really need to master perspective if you ever do a realistic painting or drawing with buildings and man-made structures.

More about this: Power of line

and how to start sketching: How to start sketching

Visit the online print store:

Art collections by Inese Poga

White and pink flowers – enjoy spring

White orchids, acrylic painting, orchid painting

The best part of being able to create art is depending on our intentions and goals. There are no limitations in subjects or ways to create something. It is almost an absolute freedom, and pretty much nothing but only our personal attitude or situation can set us back.

Freedom in creation means doing what one wants and prefers.  If it is technique that doesn’t work for you yet, you will just have to practice more. In this post: white and pink flowers in acrylic.

Acrylic painting, spring magnolia

I sometimes meet people who think creating a painting is extremely easy. Most likely, instructions that say: paint like a master in one hour or time-lapse demos where a few hours of work are squeezed in just 1 minute, make one believe that a decent size art takes only a few minutes. Well, try to paint just a wall or better start with smaller surfaces like a door. Even that takes time, not to mention creating art layer upon layer with targeted and fine-tuned brushstroke.

Creation takes time and efforts. When somebody looks at painting they sometimes doubt how that can possibly take 2 or 3 weeks working every day for about 6 hours. It depends on medium, definitely. Acrylic is much slower medium than watercolor. Whenever some part is dry, it is almost as if starting everything from new. Acrylic is much slower than oils also. That is why it takes a lot of layers and building up color and value.

When somebody tries painting on their own, they can feel how everything takes work. Some believe that the messy first layers are a sign of a hopeless art. That is simply wrong. I sometimes demonstrate how we layer, change and improve any painting by just adding dark colors and highlights, or modifying perspective and number of details or elements. In that regard, acrylic is very forgiving and very user-friendly. The only limitation is time we spend on painting and time we are willing to spend on it. Our personal attitude and preferences change over time, as well. It’s no surprise that we might not like subject we adored a while ago or we like colors we hated before.

That is normal. That is progress or another direction.

Having flower paintings all around makes one feel fantastic. Even when my health is giving glitches, it’s a pleasure to be in the gallery and enjoy the elegant lines and uplifting colors.

If you never tried to create any art, it is a wonderful time to start. The sketching season will be on soon, and that is just a pure pleasure being outdoors and literally absorbing the surrounding life, nature and beauty.

I hope to get some followers back since I lost of all of them while migrating the blog. I don’t think I have set up even all buttons yet, so, everything will come, just give it some time.

Thanks for reading!

Purchase art prints here: Art collections by Inese Poga

How painting boosts mental health

Boost mental health painting

Mental health and creativity

Mental health is as important as physical fitness, but having flexible, fast acting and flawlessly performing brain is more important than anything else. Drawing and painting are some of the best things we can do in order to increase the brain activity, improve our memory and become more confident, self-aware and efficient with making decisions. It is needless to say that drawing and painting are calming, relaxing and rewarding.

Boosting brain performance and creating more

Every line and brushstroke we put down on paper or canvas comes from the brain impulses and activity of neurons in certain parts of the brain. Your hand doesn’t move on its own, it’s guided by your perception and the ability to transform visually and sensually perceived information into individualized personal experience. This experience is reflected on paper or canvas as you draw or paint. It is a very complex process, and we tend to think there are mysterious powers involved. I sort of want to remove the magic aspect from creativity, just to keep things simple. Inspiration will add the magic, but we have to start from the basics.

Seeing and being able to recreate what you see

Most people do not see the surrounding world as an artist does. So, the first task is learning to recognize all the multiple aspects of transforming a simple visual image into art that exhibits the artistically applicable features of this image. How do we do that? What do we need to see and notice in order to paint and draw?

Echo of image in the brain

Anything we draw or paint must find some echo in the storage space of our imagination. Such space of stored images is present within any memory and it is based on associative knowledge and acquired knowledge. Anything we create always relates to our fundamental knowledge of this world. Yet, the drawing or painting we are doing has specific subject, specific theme and atmosphere. It is a scene like no other because it always presents individual features. No two apples are exactly the same, no flower copies the other one exactly line by line, not to mention faces, landscapes or complex views.

For our mental health, acrylic painting,

Personal experience and personal decisions

Since most people, who learn painting or drawing, believe that getting all information from the outside and simply following somebody without making their own decision will do the job, the first artworks usually do not come out that great. While we are sketching or blocking in the basic shapes or lines, we should already try to decide why everything is where it is, and why composition evolves as it does. The reason we place the objects on our paper or canvas as we do, should be based on a decision. We should also decide early and plan for effects which we create later.

Decision making is as important as application of art tools

Adding paint or other elements is always based on decision-making. We decide about values, shapes, edges, washes, and we need to apply color if it is a color painting. Our brain has to make these decisions fast. Most mediums require using relevant timing. If we hesitate too much with watercolor layering, it simply will be too late to achieve flow of watercolor that makes such painting outstanding. If we are too slow, the acrylic layer we worked on, will be already dry or tacky and we will have to return to it later.

What is blocking our ability to paint?

There are two main things which are blocking our ability to proceed with painting or drawing when somebody attends or watches a class. We believe that instructor has made all decisions for us and our task is to blindly follow and to repeat what we see; and we are trying to do everything without any knowledge of why. There is no reasoning, no decisions which arise in our own brain.

Do you know what you do?

For instance, when I ask what a particular student is doing with some particular part of the painting, a very frequent answer is: “I don’t know”. How come? You have to know why you want one part dark and how to achieve that. You have to decide whether your subject is small or large, whether it has lost edges or sharp edges. Basically, we have to decide what exactly and why exactly we want to do.

No brushstroke without goal

The biggest issue is aimless brushing around, moving paint all over the canvas or paper until any distinction is lost and everything has become the same color. That is the result of not making a decision. When we decide that clouds are large and grey, we use paint to achieve this and so on. It’s obvious that only acting based on decision can contribute to implementation of our intentions.

Art instructor is not a magician

The art instructor or art teacher isn’t a magician; they cannot affect directly and immediately the way your brain works. They hope you pay attention to what they say and demonstrate and you will make your own decisions based on this advice. However, if you do not know the answer to why, what, when and how, the progress is noticeably delayed. Therefore, I also advice doing value sketches. This does not slow down, but helps tremendously with planning and deciding on what, where and how we paint.

Decision making for other areas of life

Eventually, the decision making we learn in the classroom allows us becoming more efficient with decisions in other areas of life. Everything we do should be based on decision, not impulse and lack of thinking. We should not have to admit: I don’t know why I am doing this. Unfortunately, nobody can provide you with a dose of understanding perspective, values, shapes, contrasts, layouts and other elements as a capsule or tablet to simply swallow and apply.

Fall still life based on drawing: Fall still life

More about drawing: Magic attraction of drawing

Red and gold for Christmas and holidays

Red and golden paintings

Red and gold

Red and gold is a fantastic color combination for the festive Christmas season! I thought it would be great to have a good show this year since the summer was slow. It feels the bad years are over, and I can start fresh. much better, at much higher level, much more efficient and more skillful. That is not hard to do when my health has returned.

Late with posting on blog

I have been very busy creating the show paintings, I promise to post articles and poems more often when I get over Christmas. The theme of this year is red and gold for Christmas as I mentioned. Red is such a warm and energizing color, we need it in winter. We need it especially when it’s cold and nasty outside. I was spending the day trying to get pictures for my show. The light was bad, but I tried, tried and tried until it worked.

Small bird paintings

Red cardinal and golden robin paintings make a very beautiful gift. I also invite everybody to join the art classes and paint some gifts on your own, red and golden birds or a festive holiday scene. That can be painted in a comparatively short time when using primed canvas. Primed canvas has a coat already on it, therefore, painting is easier.

Red and gold

Red and golden-red cardinals, silver-golden robin with beautiful decorations, they are sold now

Red and gold for Christmas

Red and gold colors increase the festive mood

Christmas Red poinsettia

Red and gold, and red is as in poinsettia, Poinsettia painting measures 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm

Red and gold

Red and gold as in burning candles, this is Christmas still life, 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm

Red and gold Christmas art

Red and gold, and gold as in sparkling decorations

Red and gold Holiday season art

Red and golden colors make any space festive and elegant.

Christmas show

If you prefer to paint your own art, join the art classes.

Art classes at Inese Poga’s art studio

Keeping gifting in moderate range

I hope you are not overdoing with gifts, but choosing soul-warming, mood-lifting and energy-giving things, like a painting. Why not? If you would love to see what deals are on, please check out and follow my Facebook page which is about this art studio, my art, art sales and art classes:

https://www.facebook.com/InesePoga/

 

Artistic freedom and risks taking to a higher level of ourselves

Artistic freedom

Making time

How to make time slow down and stop for a moment? I have the answer, but unfortunately, this doesn’t help me getting done everything. We can capture a moment in a painting, and we can capture the scene we are drawing or painting, thus, registering our feelings, emotions and impressions of time. I believe doing our best can be not enough sometimes, but that is the only result we are able to keep.

Well-organized workspace

My classroom just got a face-lift. There are so many flaws with easels which are sold at the art store that I had to finally get to the issue and design my own easels for classroom. They are extremely light and perfectly stable; nothing dances around, falls off or turns over. They allow painting when sitting and when standing. That took a while, and thanks to my husband and his skills, we have these easels working well now. I had to make also some smaller things like cardboard trays to organize the workspace better. Workspace has to be easily approachable and clean.

Limited art supplies

We shouldn’t try using the entire art store. I counted last night; we need 10 paint tubes at most. We can paint very well with just 8 or even 5 colors. That means we learn mixing up colors. We normally won’t be using 6 or more brushes during a few hours. Most often, we can perfectly paint acrylic with just one medium size flat brush. Watercolor requires 2 brushes, but not 10 either. I can understand why somebody tries to take everything to the class: it’s called just in case. The negative aspect of too many tools and supplies is that it causes confusion. Especially when somebody is starting out, they won’t even know what each brush does.

Practice, practice, practice 

We had a fantastic group painting today. I have 3 hour painting sessions on Saturdays. We start on blank canvas and at the end of these 3 hours we usually have something to show for. I loved that nobody was disappointed because sometimes people imagine they can go within 3 hours from never painted before to mastering painting That does not happen, so, I am very happy with people who have reasonable expectations.

No fear and relaxed state of mind

Creation of art has to be fun and relaxing activity. When I hear people saying I am afraid, I am really wondering how so? I can imagine how one is afraid from a surgery, even dentist, test or a job interview which can change the entire life. What is the worst that can happen when we paint something not as we think we should? With acrylic, nothing at all. We will need a bit more paint and possibly time to start that particular spot from new.  Most likely, that is why people who love taking risks have very good results. Once we get over the barrier we placed in front of ourselves, we are fine. I wouldn’t even call this courage. I’d rather call this: pleasure to experiment, take plunges into unknown and experience freedom.

Abstracted painting in acrylic, red flowers

Artistic freedom

Artistic freedom is like no other freedom and it is the most uplifting one. When somebody tells me there are very many rules in art, I’d like to disagree. There is no other person who can see and experience the reality in the same way we do. Why our imagination and creative potential should be then squeezed in some kind of frame of regulations? It shouldn’t. Any other freedom comes paired with duties and obligations. Artistic freedom of creative self-expression is a completely alone standing freedom. There are tips and tricks, and common sense how to get painting done faster, better, more efficiently. Art and creativity allow creating a new world every single time we take the brush or pencil in our hand.

Painting poppies, acrylic painting workshop

My popular art classes

I believe, many people like my approach, so my art groups have grown a lot. My space is limited to 12 participants, but I prefer not more than 10 artists for acrylic class. Everybody starting out in art should not take it too seriously, but enjoy and have fun. You’ll find out over time how nicely everything falls in place. The above does not refer to people who make their living with art. That is a hard work, one of the hardest I know.