| Any scene can initially be seen as a composition | | | | set having a different direction. Each set of parallel |
| of a series of forms that are all related to four | | | | lines can be drawn in the same manner. |
| basic geometric solids: the brick, the sphere, the | | | | First choose two ribs out of a set and judge the |
| cylinder, and the cone. In this article we | | | | angle they make. In reality the two ribs are |
| concentrate on the brick, i.e., we will detail its | | | | parallel but due to perspective they will usually not |
| properties and its place in the overall scheme of a | | | | look parallel (unless they are verticals). |
| drawing. | | | | You can now see where the two ribs will |
| An exact brick is a six-sided geometric solid such | | | | intersect. This gives you their vanishing point. The |
| that two opposing sides are parallel to each other | | | | two other ribs in the set will also intersect in that |
| and intersecting sides are perpendicular to each | | | | same vanishing point, this according to the rules |
| other. A brick has 12 ribs of which, in a typical | | | | of perspective. |
| scene, there are usually only 9 visible. | | | | You can now repeat the same procedure for the |
| A brick-like object can of course have any kind of | | | | remaining two sets of four parallel ribs. This will |
| orientation within your scene. The keys to | | | | give you two more vanishing points. |
| drawing such arbitrarily oriented brick correctly | | | | With a bit of practice you will soon be able to |
| are: | | | | draw any kind of brick with sufficient accuracy |
| * Observation - Although it is absolutely | | | | and the right perspective. Train yourself to draw |
| necessary to learn the basics of perspective, in | | | | each rib free-hand and in one relatively quick |
| the end, the best guide to drawing realistically, is | | | | stroke. Note that the vanishing points usually |
| to develop your powers of observation, i.e., | | | | reside outside the borders of your drawing paper |
| practice "seeing reality as it is and not as you | | | | and can therefore not always actually be drawn. |
| think it is". | | | | But, after a while, you get a good feel for the |
| Leave the built-in prejudices behind. These | | | | location of these vanishing points and even a good |
| prejudices have been built into the memory for | | | | feel for how a brick looks like in the correct |
| good reason. In your normal day to day activities | | | | perspective. The trick, as always, is practice and |
| it is not necessary to see every object in full | | | | more practice. |
| detail. This would be a waste of time and would | | | | Finally, brick-like objects very often are not |
| slow us down considerably. The brain therefore | | | | perfect bricks. However, the first cut at it can be |
| creates symbols of these objects with a | | | | drawn as a regular brick as discussed above. |
| minimum of detail. That this is so can easily be | | | | After that, you can add corrections with pencil |
| seen from children's (and many adult's) drawings. | | | | and eraser until the object looks on your paper as |
| The sun, for example, is represented by a circle | | | | it does in the real scene. The deviations occur as |
| and some radiating lines. | | | | unequal and/or non-perpendicular or non-parallel line |
| Correctly observing a brick involves judging angles | | | | segments. |
| and lengths of lines as they really appear in the | | | | In this article we discussed how to produce a line |
| scene. | | | | drawing of a brick-like object. What we outlined |
| * Perspective - To greatly help you with seeing | | | | above should be enough to get you started in the |
| correctly you can make use of the rules of simple | | | | right direction. It should not take more than a |
| perspective. | | | | couple of days to draw just about any brick-like |
| A brick has three sets of four parallel ribs, each | | | | object in a very convincing and correct manner. |