sandr037

Which of the above images seems to have the better shadows?  I ask because of the convergence of two bits of information today.  First, on the Freakonomics podcast there was a discussion on how your cultural background can affect your view of the world (e.g. pessimistic vs optimistic).   Professor of Psychology, Boaz Keysar, stated that he was “much more likely to invest in the stock market when I do it in English. If I think about it in Hebrew, I’m much more conservative.” My own experience with dual language friends agrees with that; the language used brought out a slightly different character.  Second, I had lunch with an old friend who taught architectural drawing for 20 years. He said that he gave an assignment for a drawing exercise, and stipulated that the light should come from the left. Two Israeli women turned in projects with the light coming from the right. They explained that it simply looked better that way. And, after finding that the rest of the Engl...

Distortion is the principal cause of sorrow in hand layouts. A simple mistake at the initial marking of horizon and vanishing points can cause havoc in the final product. The following examples apply to both the cube examples of the previous posts, and to any layout, whether by hand or computer. It is a mixed bag of tips, so forgive the lack of order. When creating a simple perspective using one point and a diagonal vanishing point, don’t stray far from the central point. The three cubes on the right are about as far from the central vanishing point as they can be. The cubes on the left are too far, and show some (or a lot of) distortion. Generally I try to stay within a circle whose center is the one point vanishing point, and whose radius is half way to the diagonal vanishing point. In hand layouts or computer rendering, the closer your eye is to the object the more it will be like a wide-angle lens (see the plan and perspective on the right above). Distortion will start to occur at...

Constructing a perspective of a free-form object, or a bunch of misaligned objects is trouble, and should be done in a computer with a CAD and rendering program. If however you have a design that is regular and rectilinear, there are simple rules that will get you there without a lot of work. A tiled floor of equal sized squares creates a repeating pattern across the width and depth of a room. But, it also creates a regular diagonal pattern which establishes vanishing points to the left and right of the centered one point vanishing point. If the grid consists of squares, then you have set up a diagonal system that can be used to establish any floor plan shape.  A grid of regular lines on an elevation can be used in the same way. In the photo above the grid is not made up of squares, so a number of diagonal vanishing points are possible. If you know the relative distances of vertical and horizontal spacing you can set up a measurable grid. In any case such a diagonal set of perspec...