It seemed important to understand perspective in a bit more detail in a 2D context. 3D environment software has perspective support as integral so it’s rather easy to overlook gaining an understanding of Rennaissance models of perspective. I thought had a basic understanding and indeed an intuitive understanding of perspective in 2D contexts (usual stuff overlapping, recession, etc). However, I found that when I wanted to paint a chair in perspective into an existing painting of a landscape, things were complex. First off, when painting the scene Plein air (at Gunwalloe beach), I didn’t consciously note the horizon line, just painted from my viewpoint. While this was fine at the time in a complex organic scene, when I wanted to paint in the chair things went pear-shaped (not chair shaped). Getting some better understanding of 3 point perspective (via Scott McCloud’s book Perspective for Comic Artists and with the help of a few Youtube videos including one on Raphael) helped…well, kinda. But applying a 3-point mode revealed how out of perspective (and scale) I had made other parts of the painting beforehand! So what’s the learning? Apply some basic perspective algorithms from the get-go you donkey! If I am to achieve spatially convincing visual fictions (to help underpin a sense of the uncanny) then this will help. It will inform my attempt to utilize an ‘unpowered gaze’ that cuts obliquely into the notion that Rennaissance perspective supports an agentic, mastering and empowered gaze. What I now want to explore is how to employ such ratiocination in such a way as to undermine it.
http://www.webexhibits.org/sciartperspective/raphaelperspective1.html
Tanya Krzywinska Art Blog 