Perspective Study – Winter Building

One of the most fun and challenging parts about teaching myself how to watercolour paint are the skills I’ve discovered along the way. In the beginning, its easy (but also scary and exciting) to say, “I’m going to start watercolour painting!”

Would I have even started if I truly knew that I was actually going to try to teach myself how to draw, mix colour, understand light and shadow theory, and perspective? Likely not, that sounds overwhelming, but that’s what happened and its been fun

Perspective has been difficult for me. For some reason, my mind’s eye always puts everything in birds eye view. And sometimes I wonder what this says about my “ego” (do I subconsciously think I’m above it all?!) or am I just purely lazy?

My friend, Chris Chang-Yen Phillips (check out his work here), suggested that I pick up “Understanding Perspective: Easy Techniques for Mastering Perspective Drawing on Location” by Stephanie Bower. It’s part of the Urban Sketching Handbook series. It’s excellent and has improved my drawing AND my everyday observations of my environment.

In this book, I also discovered the work of Shari Blaukopf. I’m inspired by her work especially with use of colour and perspective. So, to work on my lines, I attempted to copy a piece of hers featured in the book. I’m happy with how it turned out!

Blaukopf use of light, shadows and colour is amazing and I hope one day I have those skills too. In the meantime, my black pen for outlines is my best tool for contast.

P.S – Finishing up this post I see that Blaukopf has a new book coming out about working with colour – YESSSS!