[Nomadik]

Hi,
drawing a cool city scape right now on an 11x17 paper, and my vanishing points are way off the page(Ive attached sheets to the left right and bottom of the page[Im doing 3 point]). Does anyone have any suggestions on making this task easier?
Thanks,
Jesse

[Totally]

Work larger.. and when I say larger, I mean 32x48 or so.... that's how large we would work in perspective when I took my 2 Dimensional Design class.

I understand that there might be some space limitations... but go as large as ya can... the smaller you do perspective, the more likely it is to end up looking all fish-eye.... 32x48 with a nice yard stick should do ya good though

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Dave Myers http://members.home.com/totally

[Giant Hamster]

like, totally

[Pat]

Attaching more paper to the sides of your piece works for me most of the time. Occasionally, when I've done something really ambitious, I have to switch to using a thumbtack and some string. You can go really crazy then!

-Pat

[Frost]

I don't like the idea of adding kilometers of paper, but that's just personal.

I had explained this technique some months ago here, ... the missing image can now be found here. I hope this is somewhat clear and understandeable.

Perspective lines to vanishing points are linear, and it's very easy to take local perspective lines and project other ones derived from those base ones...

There are also other links in that post that might be useful.

[Loki]

Hey - thanks! Frost rocks, you little maggots!

[quaternius]

Thanks Frost. I hesitate to add anything, Frost and Francis and others in the past have done a good job with this, but I'll admit I do a lot of this for my living, so I'll try and add some helpful comments.

Okay, I admit to adding pieces of paper occasionally - tho' usually I just roll out a long piece of cheap tracing paper (comes in rolls). I also have an 8 ft. board I use occasionally - with a long horizontal line drawn on it to represent the horizon line. drawn on it. Instead of drawing larger, I've been usually drawing things smaller over the years - mostly because it's faster and I can often fake the details -- as long as it looks right most people won't pick up tiny errors I wouldn't notice myself.

Rather than do things the old-fashioned way - today I generally use FormZ to block up quick study models - OR I throw in vertical grids that will give me the perspective angles as well as the depth dimensions. Spooge showed this last method on his Macrosse example (check 3D Palette or GFX Artist tutorial armory sites as well).

However, sometimes the old fashioned way is more fun, and it's good to get away from the computer every once in awhile - so... here's a diagram of the old-fashioned "centrolinead". It's a perspective T-square not made anymore (that I know of). I have a couple - they're 48" long -I think I paid about $100 each to have 'em made from aluminum. But you can probably make some up yourself from Lucite/Plastic or wood. I still know at least one old-timer that uses this method in his everyday perspective work.
In fact, I only learned about these things from him. Nobody ever mentioned them in school - long before my time I guess. They allow you to work big on a standard drawing table or drafting table. Setting up the initial angles can be fussy - but then you're set. 3pt. perspective is no problem either - just add another centrolinead.
Time to see if the geocities "fp" thing works - (if not I'll edit)
Sometimes I wonder how many other lost artifacts from another age of drawing there really are.

Good Luck!

Q

[This message has been edited by quaternius (edited March 28, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by quaternius (edited March 28, 2001).]

[Visionary]

It took some practice but I've eventually been able to make mental notes to myself where the vanishing points are. I can see them off to the side of my page. Then again, I suppose if I was going for ABSOLUTE perfection I would go the extra step to attach extra paper or go for a larger canvas.

-Visionary