sandr037

I was at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens recently, and saw a painting that jogged my memory: I’d been meaning to write a post on my personal “rules” for architectural rendering. Some rules are obvious, like “Always finish before the deadline” (I say “before” because there are always last-minute adjustments to be made). Another obvious rule is “Don’t overpromise, but always fulfill any promise.” Anyway, the painting that got me going was Shipwreck by Charles Hoguet (1859). The reason it caught my eye was that it fulfilled one of my rules; that being, “Make the image compelling at all scales.” What I mean is that an illustration should look enticing from across the room as well as when the viewer is within easy viewing distance, and also when its details are viewed up close.  Seen from across the room, the dynamically balanced composition leads the viewer forward to have a closer look at the painting. As you can see, the dark part of the painting covers the bottom third of the ...

You might think that straight lines are, well, straight…but… Paris Opera, Plan There is a bit of a paradox in the world of perspective… Paris Opera, Escalier D'Honneur, Elevation When you think as an architect, the world is made up of straight parallel lines and simple geometry. But as a perspectivist, I see the world as straight converging lines with orderly parallels only where I want them. And if that weren’t enough, I know that the world of perspective is threatened by distortion if my field of view is too wide. Paris Opera, Escalier D'Honneur, Perspective Ah, distortion! Paris Opera, Escalier D'Honneur, Photo As long as you are viewing a limited window (say, 30 degrees total) you can ignore distortion. This was discussed in a previous post.   If you want to take a very wide view (say, 45 degrees or larger) you can either accept the distortion of linear perspective, or use curvilinear perspective. Curvilinear perspective is theoretically like the human eye, which has ...