It could be said that he is an expert in the creation of dynamic optical illusions, with much experience in focal plane perspectives, this alone is to be admired, if not for any other reason than using anamorphic perspective and dynamic perspective to project himself across the world. Most of his work is celebrated by both people & businesses alike, having donated to this effort, allowing the opportunity for Julian’s work to exist. Once the work is completed it is abandoned, thus making it into what is called ephemeral art, an art form that has a short life span, something that eventually disappears like tears in rain.

Julian Beever Sidewalk art.

In his book (Pavement Chalk Artist) he proclaims himself to be an entertainer, a showman, who started as a juggler and become a community activist, celebrated on a global scale as well as also being a very competent draughtsperson. Maybe he has a BA degree acquired at Leeds Polytechnic under his belt but after that he certainly went his own way and set his mark on the world populace.

All I can say about him really, is street art.

Because Julian Beever sidewalk art is unusual it has drawn attention to him from people all over the world but he also uses the same tools as the media networks that publicize the creations and portray the work. Works that can only be seen at their best through the eye of a camera lens, the same camera lens that was used to draw them. Coincidence or not these are the same visual tools that are used in the media networks and the social media networks that are enjoying a bonanza online at the present, photos say so much and are so easy to share. Grab attention for yourself by creating unusual art, 3d drawings that you can give to the news and wider media to be shared using the same tools everybody uses, coincidence or not, it works.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, 3d paintings don’t seem that difficult when you know the methods used to create them so please let me tell you how.

If you look at a pole or post that stands upright coming up from out of the ground, it will look like it is standing upright, it needn’t be a pole or a post, it can be anything, I use a post for explanation because it is a simple shape to use as an example.

Take a look at it from about 6 meters or 12 feet away, you will easily see the image as an item standing upright. You will see the post with all the differing angles that your brain will tell you is a post standing in an upright position from the ground. If you then draw a picture from the exact position you are standing in or take a picture from that position with a camera, it’ll look like it is a post standing in an upright position. If you then place that drawing, image or photo, flat on the ground it’ll look like a picture lying on the floor but it will never have the look of a post that is standing upright. It will not matter how big or small it is, not even if as large as the post itself, it’ll never really look like an upright post. If you move further back away from where it is lying on the floor, it’ll be increasingly difficult for you to identify what it is, as the angle which you’re looking at will make it more and more obscure. Julian Beever correctly refers to this angel as a viewing plane.

This is why it’ll not work.

When looking at 3D objects in reality our eyes see many different angles which are related to size, shape and distance, because you’ve 2 eyes, they see little differences and your brain informs you when the objects are 3-dimensional by understanding the meaning of all these different angels, it tells you that what you are seeing is 3 dimensional and has more than 1 side, which is what happens for you to see in 3D.

A diagram showing the Julian Beever, Sidewalk Art Viewing Plain, Anamorphic Perspective.

An example of this phenomenon can be seen in Julian Beever sidewalk art below , described as the swimming pool, in the High Street.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, Swimming Pool on the high street an example of anamorphic perspective.

Below is the same Julian Beever sidewalk art example of a pool drawn on another high street from an opposite viewing position to show how these images are elongated in order to make up for the distance they are being viewed at and giving the illusion of them being closer than they actually are.

Julian Beever, chalk art the swimming pool, in the High Street at the opposite perspective showing the image distortion.

This helps the Julian Beever sidewalk art to achieve the illusion below by tricking the eye into thinking the focal length is shorter also enabling Julian to give the impression of a very small man on the top of a very large bottle.

Julian Beever, 3d drawings, a beer bottle drawn on a sidewalk in Scotland UK

Julian Beever 3D Beer Bottle chalk drawing that is the same as the one above it with slight changes.

In the Julian Beever sidewalk art pictures above, I’ve highlighted the lines where the paving slabs join, so you are able to see more clearly that the top part of the bottle is much bigger than it should be in relation to the bottom to create the illusion of it being closer.See how the base of the bottle in highlighted section 2 is just a little bit less than the width of one paving slab but the middle section just before the neck begins to taper in, highlighted section 1 is almost 2 slabs wide and should help you to understand that the drawing is being distorted in order to help make up for the distance it is at.

The distance is best seen by looking at the Julian Beever sidewalk art example above to see how small he is when compared with the girl and looking at the gradual reduction of the size of the tiles, they can also be used to help to measure out and map the construction of your drawing like using a grid. The top part of the drawing looks like it is about two tile’s wide and much larger than the base of the bottle in the drawing.

Trying to understand how Julian Beever sidewalk art works.

When doing a drawing of a post so that it gives the impression of it standing upright, it would have to be elongated so as to confuse your eyes and brain into thinking it was closer to you than it actually is. It would also have to be much wider at the top to compensate for the distance and the further away it is the wider it would have to be because something further away gets smaller, meaning you will need to make adjustments to it in order to be able to compensate for the distance. Doing this in the drawing will give the illusion of it being closer than it is in reality. The Julian Beever sidewalk art incorporates these measures into the drawings to make them more believable and 3D looking.

A bit like the picture below, where the horizontal drawing is much larger at the other end from the base because it is farther away so it is drawn bigger making it look like it is closer.

Julian Beever sidewalk art.

An example of how a post would need to be distorted so as to seem like it was standing upright.

Below is yet another example showing Julian Beever sidewalk art that shows the image as being elongated so that it will work from the distance in which it is being viewed.

The planet with Julian Beever standing on top, sidewalk art drawn in the same place as the beer bottle above.

The planet side view, chalk art drawing showing how it has been elongated to create the anamorphic perspective.

The image above of the world picture shows another example of stretching the drawing and how the drawn image becomes much bigger as a means of compensating for distance Please take a look at the Julian Beever sidewalk art video below.

Below, I’m told this is a different type of drawing that has been atributed as being more Julian Beever, sidewalk art in the form of being a more traditional mural on a wall, it’d not surprise me as it is somewhat in a similar style that is reminiscent of other drawings he has composed. If this is not one of his drawings then it would be safe to assume that there has been some influence from Julian Beever sidewalk art in this work and I’d be very surprised to find it hasn’t. I like it as it’s very dynamic and impressive.

Mural On Wall Optical illusion unknown artist perhaps Julian Beever?

It turns out that the above image was not by Julian Beveer and may have even been an insperation to him and not the other way round because this work was unveiled in 1975

It is fifty foot by seventy five foot mural titled TUNNELVISION by artist, Blue Sky.

More information and work by the artist can be found here at this link.

Blue Sky Gallery The online art gallery for Columbia, South Carolina’s premier artist, Blue Sky.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk art can be seen in his book (Pavement Chalk Artist) 2010 is full of wonderful insights about his work giving you a small insight into the mind of the artist himself and how he created this popular street art, I bought mine from here and it was worth every penny better than any ebook online.

Image of a lighter standing upright

The challenge is to draw this lighter as an Anamorphic Perspective and reveal how it is done for those who are interested in finding out.

I took the lighter image and inserted a grid over the top to use as a reference grid for doing the drawing, I also want to show what the Anamorphic Perspective Grid actually looks like.

Lighter standing in upright position with reference grid over the top.

My camera was set up so I could draw the grid by using a camera as a viewer so as to be more able to draw the grid by using the viewing window of the camera as a guide. This is the same position and angle that the original lighter photograph was taken at.

Image showing the camera angle in relation to the paper drawing area.

In the image below you can see both the grid that has been drawn onto the A1 sheet of cartridge paper and the image as seen through the camera lens. It shows the difference between the real drawing on the paper and the image being viewed through the lens and you can see that the image in the camera viewer is now symmetrical. This now enables me to copy the image from the lighter standing in upright position with reference grid over the top as above.

Anamorphic Perspective grid as seen through the camera lens.

The image below shows what the Anamorphic Perspective Drawing Grid looks like when viewed directly from the front and looks like a normal perspective drawing grid that would perhaps be used for drawing a building looking down from the top.

Anamorphic Perspective Grid drawing shown directly from the front.

This is my quick drawing of the lighter when viewed from the correct position with the camera as you can see it worked and the lighter actually looks like it is standing upright.

Anamorphic Perspective photographed from the correct photographic angle and position.

Anamorphic perspective of the lighter drawing through the camera lens, this is showing the lighter and perspective grid at the correct viewing plane.

When you look at the image below it helps to get a look at it in its natural state as a flat drawing on a flat surface and help to get an understanding of how the Anamorphic Perspective works.

Anamorphic Perspective lying on drawing table to showing its two dimensional attributes

Below is the drawing completely in its natural viewing state as it can be seen directly from the front and now you can see how distorted it actually is. It is now quite easy to draw an Anamorphic Perspective grid because it is in actual fact a normal perspective drawing grid being looked at from upside down.

Anamorphic Perspective lighter drawing viewed directly from the front showing its normal viewing state as it would be viewed when not looking at the correct angle. From Above

The same Anamorphic drawing from above but turned upside down to show it as looking like any normal perspective drawing.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk artist his work can be seen in this book (Pavement Chalk Artist) 2010 it is a full colour book of some of his work giving some wonderful insights about how he came to create this popular street art. I enjoyed reading this book and gaining the small insights into the thinking of the artist himself, it was bought from Amazon and it was worth every penny better than any ebook down loaded from off line, I prefer the real thing.

Click the image below to get a price on Amazon.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk artist.

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Learn how to draw skulls by first thinking about the caricaturists of a human skull, it is composed of bone that forms the overall shape and because of this it is an off white color making it great for practicing your shading and providing a good subject matter to encourage you to make more use of the paper tone. Even if you use colored paper with highlights to emphasize the lightest tones, your skull drawings will still look good, giving you plenty of practice with your drawing techniques and skills. Common features to a skull are the brain cavity with a nice curved area, eye sockets, nose cavity, jaw and teeth.  All of these can be exaggerated as features to easily create the skulls of monsters or sinister creatures but still recognizable as skulls because they have strong characteristics and features that are easily recognizable.

My advice for you would be to draw a human skull a few times so as to understand what a human skull looks like and how it is drawn but I don’t expect you to have one of your own so I have provided a few examples for you to draw if you want to use them. I would advise that you trace them first so you do not have to do the outline construction this will make it easier. If you want to learn more on the subject of tracing and its benefits then you could join my ezine and down load a free report on the right hand side of this page. When you have a few outlines drawn you can decide on which one you would like to continue by doing the shading on it.

A skull example for how to draw skulls,

This will help you to see more detail in the subject matter, informing you as to how the shapes fit together and how the shadows help to create a more three dimensional shape to your skull drawings or any drawing.

It will also be good practice for helping you to better understand how to draw skulls of all kinds’ not just human skulls because it will put accurate information into your head to start with about skull drawings .

The video below will help you by showing you how I draw; it is always good to watch how others draw.

I suggest that after doing this you should try to draw some skulls free hand from memory.

The best way to draw skulls is to start off drawing real skulls then after drawing a few you will have the information written into your brain so as to be more able to draw them from memory. The good thing about learning how to draw skulls is s is that they are not like faces and do not have to look like a particular person in fact you can be quite creative with them because of this. The best way to start off is with the main outline which depending on which angle you are looking at is a circular shape with a rectangular bottom where the jaw would be when looking from the front.

How To Draw Skulls A Front View Example To Use As An Information Source To Help You.

When looking from the side it would be an oval shape lying horizontally with a rectangular shape jutting off the front where the jaw would be again.

From this basic shape you can then start putting in the detail, if you do these out line drawings with light pencil marks they can more easily be covered up as you put more detail into your drawing building it up as you go along. My best advice would be to use photographs to get your information and you can find many of these online but just in case you’re not able find any then you can use these that’s why they are here the help you learn how to draw skulls and you will find plenty of interesting angles that can be useful if wanting to add some other adornments like hats or head dress to you skull drawings when learning how to draw skulls.

Skulls are good for drawing as they are quite easy, once you have drawn a few, you can get a buzz out of drawing them because they look good without great effort, they can be used for horror art, fantasy art, tattoos or cartoons. They can be combined with many other elements of creature and character designs, they are good for adding drama as a visual dynamic, I enjoy drawing skulls and have drawn many.

Now you should try drawing some more skulls free hand by making simple line drawings of them trying out different versions quickly, try exaggerating features like cheek bones or teeth, try having some teeth missing. You could make one into a pirate skull by giving it an eye patch and a bandanna or an Indian with a head dress or a cowboy with a Stetson, the possibilities are endless. How to draw skulls will help you to make some great skull drawings but you should at the very least start by drawing your skull drawings from the photographs of real skulls.

 
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You are not going to believe this but all pictures are easy pictures to draw, ha, ha.

The truth is drawing is easy when somebody tells you how easy, there are many easy pictures to draw but most people don’t realize, don’t know, don’t want to know or don’t want you to know and that’s the truth. The visual culture, visual media, commercial arts, arts industry, all make pictures the easy way and the only people who don’t are us, ordinary people like you and me.  Except I realized this by accident really because I spent 40 years learning the hard way first, the most difficult way possible really by teaching my self.

Easy pictures to draw lonely cliff castle drawn by human not machine

Easy pictures to draw is how the industry do it.

Take a good look at the drawing, commercial arts industry, colleges, universities and you will find far less little actual drawing going on than you realise, much of it is now done on computer, by machine, yet we all try to do it the hard way by trying to draw free hand. Yes there is great self satisfaction and accomplishment in doing drawings free hand but when you are trying to draw like your favourite artist or draw your favourite picture, you will find that it usually comes from the art media industry, who don’t do it that way really when they use machines to do it and it’s quite different.

They use computers for everything nowadays, so it is questionable if it is actually drawing at all, aren’t they very easy pictures to draw when a machine does it for you?

Yes it takes some understanding and skill to use those machines but the question is are they doing the drawing or are they operating a machine that’s doing the drawing?

Of course nobody tells you this, nobody tells you when you are drawing or learning to draw that you are competing against machines and I am not sure if they or any body at all even realizes it but drawing with a machines is questionable because who’s actually doing the drawing?

Those that use these machines don’t tell you either but like I have already said I am not sure they have realized, I would love to tell you that it’s some dirty secret but I am not sure it is, they just let you form your own opinion which is what we mostly all do anyway.

The dragons flight showing easy pictures to draw without using a machine to do it.

Let me get back to the subject after my little rant, easy pictures to draw are very easy so easy even you can do them and compete against these machines, not only compete but use them so you are doing the drawing, real drawings that you can tear in half if you want to and throw away. Try doing that with a computer drawing, have you tried ripping a computer in half, don’t bother it’s a waste of time and somebody else might have the drawing on their computer so you won’t even be able to destroy it.  Just a silly joke don’t take me too serious on it please!!!

How much does a pencil cost, $2 perhaps for an expensive one, how much does a computer cost $500 for a reasonably cheap one, how much does the software cost, any thing from $50 to a $1000 plus depending on what it is. You already have access to a computer or you wouldn’t be reading this so no worries there, all you need now is a pencil and some paper.

I am sorry but I still haven’t told you how to draw easy pictures but I will if you join me and down load my free report (How To Draw Easy And Simple), please find a subscription box at the top of the page, soon it will be you finding easy pictures to draw.

Easy pictures to draw, Dragon Land drawing in pen and ink, showing that we are not machines, we are human beings.

If you want some drawing ideas then take a look at the page at the end of this link to drawing ideas.

Easy pictures to draw will soon be everywhere you look if you read my report, I promise and I will also not be filling your email in box with spam every five minuets trying to sell you something either, once or maybe twice a month if your lucky will be sufficient but not trying to sell you stuff.

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Easy drawings to draw are so easy they are simple.

Yes, easy drawings to draw are so easy, you just find the pictures that you like, that you can get from anywhere on line or from photographs that you or other people have taken, they could be anything. You can get your favourite Anime or Manga pictures they could be pictures of animals or people the choice is yours and all you really need to do is trace them from your computer screen, it’s that easy.

If you place a piece of plane printing paper on your computer screen over a picture that you like you will be able to see it through the paper because of the light coming from your computer monitor. This means that you can trace any picture you want if you can get it up on your computer monitor screen and it’s so easy. Most commercial arts, drawing studios have tools that are called light boxes or rather they used to have these because now nearly everything is done on a computer, meaning the light boxes are not used so much anymore. These light boxes are a box with a light inside and a piece of glass or clear plastic over the top, where you place the picture you want to draw and a clean piece of thin paper over the top to draw onto. These light boxes are not as good as a computer monitor because the light has to shine through the image and the paper you want to draw onto, whereas with a picture on a computer monitor the picture is its self the actual the light source.

Tracing pictures in this way will help you to be able to draw any picture you like quite easily and once you have got the outline of the picture you want to draw then you can finish it off by doing the shading or colouring it in, but don’t attempt to do this on the monitor remove it first. Many people might think that this is cheating but it is just an easy way to learn how to draw easy drawings and if you do this it will help your free hand drawing improve a great deal.

Now that you know this you should also know that you can now draw any picture you want easy and get it right every time, the simple way, why make things difficult when they don’t have to be?

Just one thing you need to know first before you do this, if you are using a flat soft screen TFT monitor then do not press hard on your pencil as it will damage the screen, if it is glass then it will be fine and will not get damaged. There is no need to press hard on your pencil because you only need a light line to start out with as you can easily go over your drawing when it is on the table, desk or where ever you do your drawing.

We will not accept any responsibility if you damage your monitor as there is no need to press hard on your pencil and by not doing so it will also help you to become better at drawing.

This is a quick drawing taken from a paused video on YouTube.

This is another character, Bleach taken from the same place as the one above in the same way.

Easy drawings to draw are so easy, even you can do it when you know how and now you have been told how.

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Drawing ideas or what can I draw, has got to be one of the most common questions ever spoken or should I say, that most of us have often said “I don’t know what to draw” because we want to do some drawing but have no drawing ideas or inspiration.  I do remember quite clearly saying to my parents or others when I was younger “I want to draw” and when I was older as well, “I don’t know what to draw, what can I draw?”

The problem is, that it is not the right question and won’t bring results, it is wasted because even if others tell you what to draw, you don’t do it, so the conclusion is, that the answer is inside you. I am sorry but you are the only one who can answer that question, I can’t answer the question but I can help you to resolve it because it’s not really a question, it’s a problem.

The real problem is simple to understand, if you don’t put anything into the basket, how can you get anything out of it? What I mean is this, if you don’t fill your head with drawing ideas, then where do you think, you are going to get your drawing ideas from?

If you think about the pictures you have drawn and the reasons why you did them, you will find that it wasn’t because you had the urge to draw a car, a face or whatever, it was a specific car, face or whatever that you wanted to draw, this is often described as inspiration, a desire to draw it.

This is very often because you like whatever it is, especially when you are not very experienced, young, untrained or self taught because you have not disciplined yourself, to understand anything about why you are drawing these things, you just draw them because you’re enjoying it, you like it.

Inspiration is about what goes on inside your head, the things you think about, the things you dream about, the dreams you think about, so inspiration is about agitating/stimulating this process into action to give you, food for thought.

Here’s the best part, we all do this all the time naturally but most of it is not channeled because we are distracted by life and living it’s self, unless we make time to nurture the process, it gets lost in information overload.

Stimulation is only half of the story, we need to transfer this information from our imaginations into the real world, into something of substance and this is what you are drawing, your ideas, it is called self actualization.

Do you remember this statement “The real problem is simple to understand, if you don’t put anything into the basket, how can you get anything out of it? What I mean is this, if you don’t fill your head with drawing ideas then where do you think you are going to get your drawing ideas from?”

How to fill your head.

The drawing idea generator.

The nowadays method, using the net.

Nowadays it’s so easy to find something to draw, I just go online to Google images, I can get all the source material, I could ever want and you people today, don’t know how easy you have got it? When I was a youngster learning to draw, I was lucky if I had 2 Marvel comics or a news paper to get some drawing ideas from, let alone the billions of images online. Sometimes this can also be a problem known as overkill, information overload or spoilt for choice but that is not the issue, we are concerned with at the moment.

I cannot really specifically tell you what to fill your head with but I can tell you, that if you fill your head with images, that you like, then they will give you ideas.

I can also tell you this is how I fill my head with drawing ideas and it works like a dream, in fact I think perhaps I should be selling this to you but I am not because it’s free anyway, just joking.

I go to a site called Stumble Upon and stumble for images of the stuff I like, this soon fills my head, feeds my brain, feeds my need or feeds my greed, it doesn’t matter because it just works like nothing else, I know.

Organized stumbling brings results or I’ll eat my hat.

I never get to ask that question, what can I draw, anymore, it’s so easy?

For those of you who don’t know what StumbleUpon is, then I will tell you. Besides being a fantastic place to store links to your favorite sites, as a social book marking tool, it also gives you the option to click a button and view random web pages, that can be targeted to your specific interests.

So you can set it to view pictures and then click the button to look at random pictures of interest, it is another form of channel hoping, except you can pick broad topics, this really brings unexpected drawing ideas to mind, that feeds my need. I have to say it’s fantastic because it is to me at least, please remember, a Marvel Comic as good as they where and a news paper is not much in the way of inspiration.

Then when I have got my drawing ideas off inside my head, I go to Google Images, Getty Images or any of a hundred other places looking for source material to build my next drawing, pictorial illusion.

You people today, don’t know how easy you have it.

Knowing what to draw is no longer an issue, Join Stumbleupon and if you are wondering about, what’s in it for me, then don’t bother.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

The answer to the above question is, there is nothing in it for me, unless you want to do yourself a favor and stumble http://howtodraweasy.com/ that would help me, to help you, perhaps.

This is one interpretation of what you will be doing: besides just filling your head with visual information, as it will also be, popular, visual, cultural, information, of your time, a fabulous way of seeing what the world likes, at random.

Another interpretation of this method, can be described as being the basic subject matter, for the pop art movement, research into, popular visual culture, using the nowadays experiential learning rout.

My StumbleUpon, what to draw method, is as follows.

In settings, Manage Interests, I have the following selected because I am mostly interested in images, if you have too many topics selected then your time becomes diluted with reading and not looking.

• Arts
• Bizarre/Oddities
• Sculpting
• Computer Graphics
• Drawing
• Photography

I installed the tool bar into my browser and whenever I am at loose end, not knowing what to do, I can stumble images, related information, on StumbleUpon but to be honest, I am never stuck for something to draw.

I often use this method not to look for drawing ideas or images to draw but develop the ideas I already have because I have been drawing for about 40 years, I have developed my discipline many years ago. I use the stumble upon, image hopping process, to give me new drawing ideas for what I am working on and it throws up some very interesting, potential developments, for these ideas that I already have, as work in progress.

I also find it to be a good place to store Art/Drawing links to related web pages, as favorites for future reference, without clogging up my browser favorites and keeping everything related in one place.

Alternatively if you don’t want to join and use stumble upon then you can go to Google images or where ever your own preference might be, to view images you like because by viewing images you are actually, stimulating your brain into thinking about these, generating inspiration for developing your own.

Not knowing what to draw is often about not being inspired and the best way to inspire yourself, is to look at other peoples pictures, photographs or ideas which will help fill your head and feed your need.

Some images created through stumbling, can be seen below.

A picture of a car, a frog and a girl, all the girls love a frog, ask Louie.

Dragon in the city stalking its pray.

This is the dragon stalking the girl.

All the most well known and loved stories in our lives, are most often filled with elements, that we can identify with and recognize, these are personal but also very similar, from person to person, so they are a shared reality, they are most often cultural preferences, with common threads, from one culture to the next and not so personal after all. This means that stories contain elements, that are common to most people, the same can be said of images, people recognize and attach meaning to images, the symbols within them and even the colors used become meaningful, this seems more so with time and maturity, as people age.

Girl on tong, maker pens and graphite pencil drawing, see it on YouTube, quickfirst channel.

The further you move away from the norms, the more unrecognizable your drawing ideas become and sometimes more outrageous or distasteful, making them less likable to the masses in general. I have already said this “the answer is inside you” you are able to create your own drawing ideas by stimulating, that thinking muscle they call the brain, with visual images.

You decide what to draw through your own inspiration.

Spirit of the times pencil drawing, life and death.

Aerial maneuvers, dragon over the roof tops.

You can find some more videos to watch at these links, how to draw a gun, drawing people and my favorite pencil portrait drawing of Kurt Cobain, all these should help to fire your imagination and perhaps give some drawing ideas.

Negative space might sound like a science fiction phenomenon, a Doctor Who concept or something from Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy but to be totally honest it’s not.

Negative space is the concept of space surrounding an object, if you where to draw a car, then that car would be positive space but the surrounding area around it, would be negative space.

As you can see below the surrounding area, known as the negative space, still depicts the outline of the car and can be just about recognized as a car, making this an example of how negative space can be used to depict an image, that is not actually there.

The example below will help you understand this better, I am sure.

Beatles and a Honda Civic, positive, negative space what is it?

The space around an object, is important and deserves consideration, as it can be used to suggest objects, when they are not even there, saving you a lot of time because they are only used as outlines, saving you the time of rendering the detail.

MC Escher provides, probably the most celebrated examples of how negative space can be used, to great effect and below is an adaptation of his ideas, for illustrative purposes but best seen in his own work.

An example, a version of flying geese, birds and fish taken from work by MC Escher.

The image above taken from Day and Night 1938, with the original being made from a woodcut print in black and grey, printed from 2 blocks and another image Sky and Water II, which is another woodcut of the same time, both mashed together.

These are just two pieces of work from a vast collection of work by MC Escher, that convey the use of both positive and negative space, the same image in both spaces creating a clever illusion, which can be seen in many other examples like, the Chinese, Yin and Yang, which is another very popular example.

In its visual form, the Yin and Yang concept is conveyed as opposites, of equal size and proportion, where each contains some of the other, represented by the opposite neutral tones portrayed as, black and white dots in its opposite portion.

The use of negative space to convey, other double illusions, can be seen in the images below, where the use of simple outline cutouts, portray a similar image to the main figure, on the same theme of popular culture and music.

The example above takes contemporary images, to convey them in both positive and negative space, through the use of outline cutouts.

Below is a further development, using outlines as silhouettes?

When drawing an outline of something, as like, when you are constructing a drawing, what you are trying to recreate is the line, between the positive and negative space, for this reason, it is important to be able to see that line, distinguishing the two.

The point where one stops and the other begins is the outline.

The Beatles and the 5th Beatle, negative, positive space.

The official MC Escher site: http://www.mcescher.com/ is a place to look if you would like to see, some of the very best examples of negative space illusion, as MC Escher was/is the grand master of optical illusion and negative space.

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Sketching, draw and drawing are the same thing right, are they really, but of course they are, aren’t they?

To draw and sketch, are they the same?

Dictionary examples:

“To draw is to sketch (someone or something) in lines; delineate; depict: to draw a vase with charcoal, to compose or create (a picture) in lines, to mark or lay out; trace: to draw perpendicular lines.

A sketch is a hasty or UN-detailed drawing or painting often made as a preliminary study.”

Many years ago when I was in school, I took an option to do Technical Drawing, I didn’t like it because it was more about mathematics, accuracy and precession with no room for mistakes, I did not consider it to be drawing at all. I believed it was too mechanical, too calculated and I did not realize then, that all drawing is about these same processes of measurement but carried out in different ways, using your eyes rather than a ruler. When doing Technical Drawing, you know how to do it and how it will look, before it has even been done but when you do some sketching, these restraints are not as important, as just getting something down on paper.

To me there is a big difference between them are: drawings are about accuracy and detail, where as sketches are about speed and experimentation, but to clearly define them individually, is difficult because aspects of both spill into each other.

When you draw with accuracy, the information you record becomes visual knowledge, so when you sketch, that same visual knowledge spills over into your practice, which in turn informs you’re sketching.

Sketching is about getting things right and wrong, to test or find new ideas, to drive your ability, where as drawing is about doing this but also it is about getting it right, with all the details in all the right places.

Drawings can sometimes also go wrong, which often inspires new ideas but with sketches, there is less emphasis on accuracy, so more opportunity for errors of judgment and greatly increasing the chance of finding happy accidents.

Happy accidents, are where people find positive outcomes by accident and many great discoveries in art, science and all other areas are found often, in this way, the one premise for doing this is, you won’t find anything if your not looking.

When people draw they first sketch an outline, then they sketch where the detail goes and then they draw in the detail. This process is one of the basic rules of drawing and sketching, along with working from light to dark.

When people draw, they first make small light marks identifying where everything goes, in relation and proportionate to everything else in the drawing, as compared to the subject of your drawing or sketching.

Drawing focuses on conveying subjects, through the deeper understanding of details contained within them, both require you to think, about what you are doing, at least in the beginning, both require you to constantly look, from subject to work area.

Both teach you to see and to look for more, even when producing less detail, you still learn to see in terms of plains, angles, curves, contour, light and dark, the process of drawing or sketching, will both aid the development of this ability.

The more you do it, the better you get at it, sketching, draw and drawing are the same thing right?

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Julian Beever, 3d paintings are great but I would also like to give mention to, Kurt Wenner, Edgar Müller,  who are three other artists, known for doing, modern anamorphic, perspective, 3d paintings, 3d street art and these three artists, give us some proof, that there is more to looking, than just pointing your eyes, in the direction of an object.

Everybody and the dog will tell you, drawing is about looking and do you know what, all of them are right but do you want to know something else, very few of them actually explain what they mean, do they?

How important is it to understand, some basic principles about looking, when trying to understand Julian Beever, 3d paintings better?

I don’t know about you but I see so much, I cannot possibly take it all in, we live in a very visually informative world, 80% of all the information we receive, is visual any way. So we are literally, being bombarded with it, saturated with it, we even see things in our sleep or at least, we think we do.

But we actually see very little because it doesn’t register, we are not really looking, we are just seeing, browsing you might say but if you are going to learn to draw, then you need to look, with reason.

Here are some obvious points, that weren’t so obvious, to me once upon a time; I used to lie on the bed, as a kid and draw, but no matter how hard I tried, my pictures never looked right.

When I used to draw at the kitchen table, they always turned out, much better and it was because of the angel I was drawing at, if you try to draw at an angle, lying down, then you will usually end up with, a distorted image. If you only look at this image, from the angle at which it was drawn, it will look more accurate, than if you hold it up squarely in front of your eyes, to view.

This information is very useful, when you look at the fantastic work, created by chalk sidewalk artist’s, Kurt Wenner, Julian Beever and Edgar Müller, these are modern day artist’s, doing chalk, 3d pavement art, that completely turns, this whole problem to an advantage, not only do they make this, a unique selling point but they also, make it their trade mark.

Before Julian Beever, 3d paintings, there was Andrea Pozzo.

There is a name for this type of art, it is called, anamorphic perspective and the earliest examples of this are, by Leonardo Da Vinci and Andrea Pozzo.

Some examples of this early work, can be seen in Andrea Pozzo’s work, on the ceilings of the Jesuit, St Ignatius’ Church, Rome, 1685 – 1694, this masterpiece, is a fabulous example, of illusory perspectives and the dome being of particular importance.

Sant Ignazio ceiling.

Sant Ignazio ceiling further away.

The dome is not real either and from a certain point, marked with a brass plate, on the floor, you find it very difficult, to see that it isn’t.

Kurt Wenner, Julian Beever and Edgar Müller, these guys do this, on the street and also create, fabulous examples of illusory perspectives, so the question for me, is how they do these illusions.

Julian Beever, Edgar Müller and Kurt Wenner.

Julian Beever, 3d paintings.

Kurt Wenner, 3d paintings.

Edgar Müller, 3d paintings.

Edgar Müller uses the computer, to digitally render the work, concepts, ideas, if you can use computer photo editing software, then this is the way to go.

Looking at the way Edgar constructs his drawings, shows that he uses, what looks like masking tape, to get parts of his street paintings accurate, it also looks like he takes an approach, similar to that used in Julian Beever’s, 3d paintings.

Here are just a couple of ideas, I tried, after looking at work done by these other guys but mostly I used Edgar Müller, for inspiration and I was pleasantly surprised.

Image done with photo editing software, to give an example of an Edgar Muller, type theme.

Another image, done with photo editing software, to give an example of Edgar Muller, Jillian Beaver , Kurt Wenner, 3d street art, type illusions.

Julian Beever explains, that he is not a mathematician and has no mathematical skills to speak of; he says that he uses, the good old grid method, in order to construct his drawings. He also uses, a camera on a tripod as a viewer, which enables him to use the fixed position of the camera, to always be able to identify, the exact position, to view the street painting accurately.

A statement made by Kurt Wenner, that explains, how he approaches his work, “Artistic geometry was the most fascinating subject” this could be mathematics, in another name, exactly the opposite to Julian Beever.

If I was going to create the illusion above, then I would do it like this, first of all I would do a scaled painting, on paper of the above image, that would be four times bigger, than the original image, which is A4, so my preparation painting would be A2 in size.

This will give me a greater understanding, of how to construct the drawing and mix the colors, it will give me a feeling for the picture, plus it is a desirable image, in it’s own right. This would also give me two images, to work from and a more informed understanding of what, I would be attempting to create.

I would find the farthest point, from my camera tripod, yes I would use a camera because after carrying out some experiments, I found it to be very helpful for viewing, not just this type of work either, so thanks to Julian Beever.

I also realized that these illusions, don’t have the same impact to the naked eye and after reading extensively, about these artists, I find that they also hint at this.

From the farthest point, I would run a tape like Edgar Müller does, to use this, as an anchor point, for the rest of the picture. Then using identifiable points, in the drawing space, environment, with this actually being the street, I would construct my drawing outline, from reference points identified, when doing the preparation painting.

A plan, showing how elements in the picture, can be used to mark out the drawing.

Street art construction plan with text to explain in more detail.

I would construct my outline by marking in key areas, identifying them from my original image and marking them, with a chalk stick, until I was confident I had enough information, to create my painting. I would keep going back, to the camera to view the image and check for accuracy, I would basically draw it, like any other drawing, by using reference points, from the surrounding landscape, to identify reference points in the drawing/painting. This is a necessary, continual and ongoing process, when doing any kind of drawing but even more so, when doing anamorphic perspectives, you need to be checking and double checking for accuracy, just like Julian Beever and others, my favorites are the Julian Beever, 3d paintings.

If you would like to find out more, about how to do this, then follow this link, to Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk art and see some more of his work, and get a better understanding of Julian Beever, 3d paintings.

Julian Beever pavement art, sidewalk art, chalk artist, has new work that can be observed in his book (Pavement Chalk Artist) 2010, it’s a lovely full color book, showing some wonderful new images and insights about how, exactly, he found his path, to creating, this popular form of street art. I loved reading through this book and attaining a glimpse, into the artist himself, I purchased mine from Amazon . com, it was worth it, much better than any e-book, I could down load off line and sits nicely on the shelf, in my collection, begging visitors, to also take a look.

Click below to obtain a price on Amazon . com.

When I draw pictures, I often get lost for hours, fantasizing and dreaming to myself, about all sorts of imaginary ideas, concepts, stories or worlds, people, creatures and places, magic, and illusions. This is often the realm of creative artists, things that don’t exist, until you draw them and they are released from the imprisonment, of your mind, onto an unsuspecting world, it’s amazing, when someone looks at your work and says wow.

The creative artists and process.

Below is an image of Gearman, he is an attempt at showing, the workings of how creative artists, with their imagination, create illusions from everyday objects, something I have done many times, when drawing because you can often see things, in other things.

Image showing, the constructional stages of building an image, from another different images.

Yes, I know this is not, a creative drawing as such but is it, because it is not a photograph either, except for the, LX mountain bike gears, the rest could be considered a digital drawing, rather than a pencil drawing but in this format, it more easily shows the process, of seeing things, as other things.

If you draw pictures, any pictures, out of you imagination, from a picture or from life and you look, at what you are doing, you will start to see other things, this is not likely to happen at first because you will need, to build up visual memory from doing, a stock of past works, this is often called a repertoire. This is why, it is important to practice by doing drawings, all the time but if you like drawing, like many people do and you are a creative artist, it will not be a problem, as you will soon have a repertoire.

I want to tell you a little story, it is a bit of a dark story but a true story, all the same and also a good reason for understanding, a little bit more, about what I am trying to explain, about visual memory and creative artists.

I had a bit of an obsession, from when I was a small child, I wanted to be able to draw the human likeness, I wanted to be able, to draw portraits of real people, that looked like them. A large part of my young life, had been focused, on trying to do this accurately, so as others, would uphold my observations and confirm that I had, the ability to capture the human likeness, through drawing. I eventually reached the pinnacle of my success, in this, by drawing and painting portraits for people, getting paid by them for this work. During this time of about 3 years, doing portraits, I sold over a hundred of these, to the expressed wishes of those, I was drawing them for but I also drew many more, in the process, that I also sold, how many I do not really know, but in total, a couple of hundred. I was at it, all the time but it was causing me other problems, I discovered, I was so over exposed to faces, that I began to start seeing them everywhere, in everything I looked at. I seen faces in trees, bushes, the drawings I was doing, buildings, everything, it was fun at first but it soon became annoying, for me because I felt it was restricting my imagination, unless I was drawing faces.

I never wanted to be like that, I wanted to be able to draw faces, as well as cars, robots, landscapes, mountain bike scape’s or what ever but not just faces, and I had to stop.

I am glad I did, I don’t just see faces in everything, I look at anymore but, the only way to do this, was to stop and go back, to drawing anything but not faces, only when I needed them, for something else now.

This leads me to believe, that all creative artists, can hone their skills into a focused but restricted visual memory, by repetitively doing the same subjects, over and over, it seems to be a reason, why some of these creative artists, can draw from memory, without even looking, which is something I did not like because it felt like, my creative abilities where being restricted, to only one type of subject.

My new obsession, is to be able to draw everything and I am joking because I can do that anyway, so that’s what I do, we are all creative artists, developing a creative process, in every thing we do because that’s what humans do, when they focus their attentions on a task, this dose not just apply to drawing.

Simple pencil drawings do exist, yes they do, and the most difficult part, of any drawing, is the construction, so to make it easy, eliminate, the construction problem. Now to be honest, if you eliminate, the construction process, then you might be thinking, there is nothing left to draw, but you will only be half right because there are two parts to a drawing, construction and shading.

If you trace the basic construction, of your potential drawing, then take the time, to fill it in, by doing the shading, you are actually reducing the work load, by at least half but still learning, how to draw. This is not to say, that you are cheating because you still have to do the shading and although, the grunt work of the construction, has been done easy, you still have to make sure your construction, of the shading is accurate. This means that you still, have to do important work, on your picture or drawing but with, less effort. The end results, are that you end up learning, how to draw better, producing very nice drawings, that are accurate, with only having to put half the work, into doing it.

Just in case, you need some further reassurance, that it is OK, to do this, then take a good look around, for information about how to draw. You will find much reference, to using a viewing grid, to help you, construct your drawing and viewing grids, are just a slightly more, difficult way, to trace pictures. Many artists world wide, use viewing grids, as their preferred method, of doing construction drawings and what they are doing in actual fact, is tracing their construction drawings, by using a grid, instead of using a picture, to trace over.

Simple pencil drawings, do exist and people do them all the time, they just don’t explain, how they are done because you never ask.