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Alexis Stockdale
•
3yr
Asked for help
Hi! I was watching a video in the anatomy course about simplifying joints in perspective. Marshall Vandruff mentioned briefly that drawing a sphere with cross contours in perspective takes several hours to master. How do you draw a sphere correctly in the way that Marshall describes? I don't believe I am doing it correctly, it doesn't look as "3D" as his. Is it just a matter of getting clean ellipses or are there perspective rules regarding how the contours should be aligned? I did the 250 box challenge from DrawABox, and I know from that there are ways to check if your box is approximately in the right perspective. Is there a similar way to check the contour lines?
Alexis Stockdale
•
3yr
How does Marshall know how much the humerus will foreshorten at a certain angle? Is it just a matter of knowing intuitively from drawing so much?
•
3yr
Hi @Alexis Stockdale, good question!
I think it's a combo of having drawn a lot, and the use of perspective techniques. The foreshortening of the humerus can be figured out with perspective techniques. In this case I think I would use a circle in perspective to get the foreshortening right. The glenohumeral joint would be the center of the circle, and the lenght of the humerus the radius.
I think Marshall has this technique in mind (he draws part of the circle in this example), but he also relies on his intuition. If you practice drawing boxes, cylinders and spheres a lot, you might get so comfortable with them that you can play with them freely in space. When I sketch I usually start with the intuition I've gained from practice, then if anything feels of, I can go back in and use perspective techniques to correct things.
I gained much of my intuitive understanding of perspective when doing the exercises in the Figure Drawing Fundamentals course. It prepares you with the skills you need for the anatomy course. And to get a deeper understanding of perspective you can pair the figure course with Marshall's 1994 Perspective Drawing Series https://marshallart.com/SHOP/all-products/all-videos/1994-perspective-drawing-series/
Hope this answers your question :)
Alexis Stockdale
•
3yr
Hi! This may be a dumb question, but how do you draw a sphere correctly in the way that Marshall describes? He said it takes several hours of work to do it right. I don't believe I am doing it correctly, it doesn't look as "3D" as his. Is it just a matter of getting clean ellipses or are there perspective rules regarding how the contours should be aligned? I did the 250 box challenge from DrawABox, and I know from that there are ways to check if your box is approximately in the right perspective. Is there a similar way to check the contour lines?
Marshall Vandruff has an amazing perspective class on his own site that’s only $12 USD. It’s been awhile since I took it so I don’t remember how much he covered spheres in particular, but he took quite a bit of time going over how to form proper ellipses in perspective which is the same thing essentially. Highly recommend and I think it’ll answer your questions. : )
