Freehand Perspective and Sketching

252 Pages·2012·9.27 MB·English

by  Dora Miriam Norton

Bibliographical Note This Dover edition, first published in 2006, is a
republication of the eighth (1925) edition of the work, originally published by
the author, Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1908. The author’s preface, revised for the second
edition, has been omitted here.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Norton, Dora Miriam.
Freehand perspective and sketching / Dora Miriam Norton.
p. cm.
Originally published: 8th ed. Brooklyn : D.M. Norton, 1925.
Includes index.
9780486140469
1. Perspective. 2. Drawing — Technique. I. Title.

NC750.N74 2006
742 — dc22
2005054779

Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y 11501
TO THE
MEMORY OF WALTER SMITH
FIRST DIRECTOR OF THE MASSACHUSETTS NORMAL ART SCHOOL
INSPIRING CRITIC AND JUDICIOUS FRIEND
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
WITH THE WISH THAT IT MAY HELP OTHERS AS ITS AUTHOR HAS
BEEN HELPED
D. M. N.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
INTRODUCTION
Chapter I - GENERAL DIRECTIONS
Chapter II - PENCIL MEASUREMENT AND THE PICTURE PLANE
Chapter III - THE ELLIPSE
Chapter IV - A CYLINDER AND A CYLINDRICAL OBJECT
Chapter V - AN OBJECT ABOVE THE EYE AND THE CONE PRINCIPLE
Chapter VI - A CREAM JUG
Chapter VII - A TIME STUDY
Chapter VIII - A GROUP OF CYLINDRICAL OBJECTS
Chapter IX - CYLINDRICAL OBJECTS GROUPED WITH FRUIT
Chapter X - A GROUP OF OBJECTS FROM MEMORY OR INVENTION
Chapter XI - THE CYLINDER CONE AND BALL GROUPED — A
PROBLEM FOR ORIGINAL STUDY
Chapter XII - THE STUDY OF STRAIGHT-LINE OBJECTS
Chapter XIII - DRAWING THE BOOK IN TWO POSITIONS
Chapter XIV - THE BOOK WITH A CYLINDRICAL OBJECT
Chapter XV - THE CYLINDER AND RECTANGULAR BLOCK — A
PROBLEM FOR ORIGINAL STUDY
Chapter XVI - THE FURTHER STUDY OF STRAIGHT-LINE OBJECTS —
A CUBE AT ANGLES WITH THE PICTURE PLANE
Chapter XVII - THE CUBE IN TWO DIFFERENT POSITIONS
Chapter XVIII - A BOOK AT ANGLES TO THE PICTURE PLANE
Chapter XIX - TWO BOOKS AT DIFFERENT ANGLES TO THE
PICTURE PLANE
Chapter XX - THE ACTUAL CENTER OF THE CIRCLE AND
MEASUREMENT INTO THE PICTURE BY PARALLEL LINES
Chapter XXI - BOOKS WITH A CYLINDRICAL OBJECT
Chapter XXII - THE STUDY AND DRAWING OF A HOUSE
Chapter XXIII - A BUILDING FROM THE PHOTOGRAPH OR A PRINT
Chapter XXIV - TYPE FORMS HELPFUL IN UNDERSTANDING THE
HOUSE — THE SQUARE FRAME
Chapter XXV - THE SQUARE PYRAMID AND SQUARE PLINTH
Chapter XXVI - THE SQUARE FRAME LEANING ON THE
RECTANGULAR BLOCK — A PROBLEM FOR ORIGINAL STUDY
Chapter XXVII - CYLINDRICAL OBJECTS WHEN NOT VERTICAL
Chapter XXVIII - A GROUP OF FLOWER POTS
Chapter XXIX - THE CIRCULAR FRAME IN A SQUARE FRAME
Chapters XXX - A ROUND WINDOW
Chapter XXXI - THE CLOCK A PROBLEM
Chapter XXXII - THE ARCH
Chapter XXXIII - INTERIORS — A ROOM PARALLEL TO THE
PICTURE PLANE
Chapter XXXIV - INTERIORS CONTINUED — A ROOM AT ANGLES
TO THE PICTURE PLANE
Chapter XXXV - FURTHER STUDIES OF INTERIORS
Chapter XXXVI - A CHAIR
Chapter XXXVII - THE HEXAGONAL PLINTH IN TWO POSITIONS
Chapter XXXVIII - INTERIOR WITH A TILED FLOOR
Chapter XXXIX - THE HEXAGONAL PRISM AND FRAME
Chapter XL - THE TRIANGULAR PRISM AND FRAME — PROBLEM
FOR ORIGINAL STUDY
Chapter XLI - THE STUDY OF PARALLEL PERSPECTIVE
Chapter XLII - A STREET FROM THE PHOTOGRAPH
Chapter XLIII - EXCEPTIONS TO THE USE OF THE FLAT PICTURE
PLANE
Chapter XLIV - SHADOWS
Chapter XLV - OUT—OF—DOORS WORK
SOLUTIONS OF PROBLEMS
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
FREEHAND Perspective teaches those few principles or truths which govern
the appearance of things to the eye, and the application of these principles to the
varied conditions encountered in drawing. Strictly speaking, there are but two
foundation truths in perspective, namely: First. Things appear smaller in
proportion to their distance from the eye. A house ten rods distant can be wholly
seen through one pane of glass (Fig. 8, Ch. II).
FIG. 1
Second. The eye can see surfaces in their true shape only when placed at right
angles to the direction in which the eye looks, or, generally speaking, parallel to
the face. When not so placed they appear lessened in one dimension, that is,
either narrowed or shortened, in proportion as they are turned away from the
face or tend to coincide with the direction of seeing. This apparent change of
shape is Foreshortening. The cylinder top held at right angles to the direction of
seeing appears as a circle (A in Fig. 1). When turned away from this direction
(as at B), it appears narrowed, or foreshortened. So the pencil seen its full length
at A in Fig. 2 appears foreshortened when held as in B. All the phenomena of
freehand perspective, however complicated and perplexing, may be simplified
by referring to one or both of these principles.
FIG. 2
One great obstacle to the ready mastery of these principles is our knowledge
of the actual shapes of objects. For instance, we know the top of a cylinder (B,
Fig. 1) to be in fact a circle, and therefore we tend to mentally see a circle,
though it is just as truly a fact that the top can only appear to the eye as a circle
when the cylinder is held so as to lose sight of all other parts of it, as at A.
Consequently, the first aim and benefit in studying perspective is the learning to
see; that is, to know what is the image really presented to the eye. Therefore no
step should ever be passed without clearly seeing the appearance under
consideration. And in all drawings the final test must be the eye; for, unless the
drawing looks right, it is not right. All rules and tests are only means to this end.
Furthermore, the right study of perspective, which is thinking and drawing in
perfect coordination, enables the student to draw objects singly or combined or
in unfamiliar positions, without having them in sight. Also he should be able to
draw an object which he has never seen if a description of it can be supplied.
That this last is quite possible any practical artist will agree. The writer recalls
hearing a popular illustrator ask in a company of friends, “Does any one know
what a cider press is like?” adding that he must put one in an illustration with no
chance to see the thing itself. No doubt of the sufficiency of a description was
expressed, and in this case it must suffice — a not uncommon situation. Hence
the necessity of memory work and dictation problems, such as form part of this
course of study.
Finally, it is not intended that in later practical work drawings should be
actually constructed by the explanatory methods here given. These exercises
should be drawn as directed, since only by the actual experience of doing it can
their principles be mastered, but a rigid clinging to these methods in practice
would result in very little art. Freehand Sketching means drawing by the trained
eye and judgment, only using constructive methods to test new or doubtful
points. It is to make such sketching valuable by a foundation of definite
knowledge that these methods are given. The trained artist draws a vase in his
flower study, or a round tower in a landscape with no distinct recalling of ellipse
laws, feeling only joy in the living curves as they spring out under his hand. But
he would labor long and wearily over their shaping had he not this foundation
knowledge, which he uses almost unconsciously.