Introduction
For my Foundation Drawing class in my Art and Design Foundation course at George Brown College, our second major project was to do a sketch of Union Station. The sketch needed to be of either one, two or three point perspective, which I did not, and still do not, have a lot of experience with. Nor do I have a lot of experience with architectural-type drawings. Luckily, we were not assigned to draw the whole building, but just a section which calmed my nerves by about 75%. Until I remembered again that, oh yeah, I still have to create an accurate perspective of something inside that big, old building.
Preparation
For in class preparation of this project, I practised by drawing a one point perspective view in a hallway of the college. I started out a little rusty because I hadn't used perspective since early on in high school, but I was able to catch on quickly once I properly found my vanishing point and horizon line. Then I drew another one point perspective in a cafe in my home town, where I challenged myself a little more by trying to draw wicker chairs in perspective. Another way that I prepared myself for this project was by walking around Union Station for an hour or so in order to get a feel of the building in general - which was stiff with bricks and hard corners, dim from weak lighting and few windows, and decorated with old carvings. These characteristics, surprisingly are what make it a beautiful building, and were very useful in helping me find the exact spot I wanted to draw.
Then, all I needed were my tools and materials:
- An HB pencil
- Eraser
- Bond paper
- Ruler
- and Canson paper
Creative Process
After wandering around Union Station and picking the perfect spot, we were assigned to create a simple sketch, without a ruler, to capture an average idea of what the perspective and details look like, in about 90 minutes. Thankfully this step was easy because we were just drawing approximately what we were seeing.
Our next step was to go back and spend about 3 hours doing an actual technical drawing of the same spot, with reference to our 90 minute sketch as well. This meant that I got to use a ruler at least - even though it did not help as much as I hoped because I still had to figure out the real perspective of this corner of Union Station.
I first thought, hmm, maybe I'll take a big risk and attempt doing a three point perspective cause it couldn't be that hard right? Wrong. I was so wrong. At my level of experience, attempting three point perspective was like driving a car for the first time and crashing.
Therefore, I gave up and receded to two point perspective, which was still a little bit difficult at first but it didn't take long for me to get the hang of it once I found the right vanishing points.
Next came the colour studies from this technical drawing. So I took my 11x14 drawing and photocopied it onto one 8x10 piece of orange Canson paper, and one 8x10 piece of blue Canson paper.
For my rough colour studies I went back to Union Station again so that I could study the lights coming in from the window, from the lamp, or from the rest of the lights outside of my corner, which surprisingly casted a big shadow.
On the orange Canson paper I used warm analogous colours ranging from yellows to a dark orange, but the product ended up being almost too warm, especially compared to the actual energy of the room.
For my colour study on the blue Canson paper I used yellows and oranges in the hanging lamp, and a range of blues to purples for the rest. This created a really nice contrast, although I knew that my amount of purple needed to be reduced as it was drawing too much attention away from the lamp.
Final Work
For my final piece I decided to recreate another version of my blue study but without purples, as I found that the contrast was just too strong. By using the blue version, I created a very cool atmosphere with a little added warmth from the yellows and oranges in the hanging lamp.
The first picture below is of the original part of Union Station that I photographed to capture the lighting. This photograph has a warmer atmosphere because of the brown/yellow brick and is in three point perspective.
The second picture below is of my final representation of Union Station in two point perspective.
Conclusion
This class project gave me a lot more experience with perspective and a much better understanding of two point perspective. Doing this project also gave me a lot more confidence to keep working with perspective and to attempt more challenging atmospheres/rooms. This project also gave me a better understanding of how to approach light differences with coloured pencils and how to make the colours blend smoothly to create highlights and shadows.
I am very happy with the outcome because it is very balanced with the lighting, and I was able to reduce a lot of the harshness from the original blue colour study.
