(this piece available at a 1 of1 NFT at SuperRare https://superrare.co/arseniclullaby )
In between the rough sketch/scribble of an idea, and the finished polished project ( both above) is a stage like this, where you figure out the perspective and vanishing points and fundamental details...
It is the most planning intensive part of the process of an illustration like this. It's where all the energy and what makes the composition good has to merge with the basic rules of perspective. Most of this is pretty remedial, some vanishing points, a bit of measuring and comparing. The aspect of this I thought I'd go over with you, because I don't see it gone over very often, is drawing circles, ovals, half circles in perspective. This'll be helpful if you draw, and if not you might find it interesting just out of morbid curiosity, of how much work can go into something.
Obviously a perfect circle on a wall facing you is going to look different than a circle on a wall that you are looking down the side of. If you just take a circle and squish it into an oval, if often looks out of place...because every else is existing in a reality that follows a certain perspective, but the circle is just bullshitted/guessed at.
SO...here's how you do it.
You start with your vanishing points. "Vanishing point" That's a dumb name...and confuses people. It's the point in the distance where all the lines would meet if they stretched out to the horizon. Like a train track that you can see all to way to the horizon, the tracks appear to meet. That point is a "vanishing point" (...they should call it a convergence point )
If you don't know what an Orthogonal line is...neither do I. I've NEVER heard that before and I'm an internationally award nominated illustrator. I think whoever made that diagram just made that up.
Anyways , in most cases you'll have two vanishing points, one on the left and one on the right...
(Notice the red lines showing that the lines on those planes would all go to those points)
In THIS case though, we are looking down on the event from high above, so there's a vanishing point below as well...
with me so far? Good...now if you wanna draw a circle in the proper perspective of the rest of the background, you start with the surface in perspective...
"and now I draw a circle in the box?"
Noooo....no...NOW, you dissect that box, drawing lines from each corner to the other, so you know where the center is...
THEN you draw a line through the center from each vanishing point so you know the center point of each side...
"and NOW I draw a circle?"
NO! NO, you do not, are you mad?! If you're not going to take this seriously then fuck on outta here...
NOW...you draw A curve from ONE mid point to the next...
and you do that three more times...
And THEN you have your circle in proper perspective...
"You can't be serious"
I am most certainly serious, that is how it is done. You think elfs do this while you are sleeping? They do not. In the case of that illustration, you simply do that...oh...188 times? something like that. Less actually, because the chairs and such are only half circles.
"you're insane, you are certifiably insane...couldn't you just do this on a computer?"
HOW...DARE...YOU. Would say to a master swordmaker "why don't you just make a mold and pour the metal in?" would you say to a master woodworker "why don't you just use a band saw?" would you tell Jimmy Hendrixs to just use a synthesizer?! You cad.
It is the human touch, the countless subtle flaws and differences, the slight inconsistencies that give something charm, and style, and brilliance, and life. It is the difference between energy and subconscious appeal that makes one feel they are seeing into a different world, and and a sterile image only suited for an instruction manual that people look at but feel no emotional connection to!
...is what I tell myself 14 hours into a project when I remember computers exist now. Where the fuck were you with that idea when I started this?
All facetiousness aside, most of what I said there about the human factor is undeniably true, but it is also true that artists very skilled on computers can produce work with charm and energy. It's just different, not better, not worse, just different. Either case takes a lot of skill and time and effort, don't ever think otherwise.
Me, myself, personally, as proficient as I am at this point in my career, plotting all that out via traditional methods actually doesn't take much more time than if I had done it on a computer. For me I don't like splitting up the creative process in the middle...going from hand drawn sketch to computer, then to traditional inking, it kinda takes me out of the groove.
Sketching things out on a computer, the initial stage of the creative process...is something I intensely warn against, for reasons that would take a whole other blog and I'd have really deep dive into the psychology and biology of how the human mind processes things. Maybe some other time.
But, whatever you use, it is important to understand the basics, the foundation of things, to know why you are doing what you are doing. Hell, that's something any craftsman from any field will agree on. So...maybe you got something outta all this, if not...we can at least soak in the results...I'd say it turned out well.
finished work available as a 1 of 1 NFT on SuperRare I'm new there, swing by and show some love...ya jerks https://superrare.co/arseniclullaby
And as always, my home base is here-
http://www.arseniclullabies.com/
NFT's of my work here-
https://superrare.co/arseniclullaby
https://makersplace.com/arseniclullaby/
https://nftshowroom.com/arseniclullaby/gallery
and you can also find me here-
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/arsenic_lullaby_official/
twitter- https://twitter.com/arsenic_lullaby
Lol, I don't always read everything.... but I enjoyed that... :D
You have a way with words as well as with a pencil/pen/brush. Even a discussion of perspective can be made entertaining.
I've tended to say that I like some craft in the art I appreciate, but I am sure there are long discussions/arguments/fistfights over whether getting a computer to do some of the graft is cheating. In theory it should just be the finished result that matters, but we humans tend to like things that other humans have made in a different way to what is automated.