Keeping it simple

Wow, thinking in 3D and perspective is really hard but I'm super excited to develop these skills. I had to pause and come back to this several times and I still think I have a lot of work to do.

My first attempt turn out kinda wanky but i didnt gave up and did it more times. The last one was CRAZY

tried getting weird but the diamond looking pyramid thing was too small and i got too lazy to redraw it. but it was a fun exercise nonetheless

This design was surprisingly hard to decide on. The more I practised optical illusions, the more I realised that beyond the technical level, they also have an element of appeal. Some combinations of impossible vertices and overlaps really do look better to me than others, regardless of rendering or ornamentation. Anyway that was the surprise learning for me in this assignment. The techniques were fun to learn and so was being forced to use a ruler for the assignment, speaking as an inveterate freehand-er.

Escher's illustrations in particular, but actually all the illustrations always felt like something unattainable, that only mathematical geniuses can create, but you made it sound so simple and doable!

did some really weird ones xD

Mostly just messing around. I'm better at doing isometric perspective on the computer lol. Mostly happy that I did the assignment. Definitely have ALOT of room for improvement

Had a lot of fun with these. I struggled keeping all the planes the same width.

The one thing I will definitely take from this is that I learned how to create isometric grids

I am proud of these H’s. They are not the finest H’s, but I am proud of them. I am trying to ‘do’ the diagram from the previous lesson and boy-whats-it maybe I never understood how to use a protractor in the first place…explains a lot. Anyway, I am LOVING these pearls of wisdom, I am feeling inspired.

Did some isometric stuff in black, then tried forcing a two point perspective on it in blue. Stared at it for a moment, threw in a little Spiderman because my eyes really prefer to see the whole structure from the top instead of looking up into it--which is what the blue perspective lines should force. I was surprised to find the little spider man guy can be seen either way.

I really enjoyed doing these! And it was good advice to give them full attention. Choosing which lines to darken and emphasise almost become meditative... But I feel like my brain has been thoroughly worked out for today 😂

These were done two days apart, a study of an isometric perspective I found online. I’ve never worked with perspective before. I did it freehand without a grid because I wanted to practice seeing it, but I will try a grid next. The attempt is very bad but I see an improvement and will hopefully continue to improve.

First couple of attempts were less illusions and more getting used to drawing boxes in this perspective. then I tried some actual illusions which were pretty fun. then I decided to see what a human would look like made of isometric boxes.

I enjoyed this assignment because it encouraged me to take the time to study optical illusions and work with some drafting tools that I haven't touched in a while (grade school? middle school?). I now understand that illusions utilize silhouettes, interior lines, overlap, and corners to trick our brains. The ways in which different artists, as we have seen in some of the instructional videos, utilize illusions to tell stories is so cool. I hope to integrate this into my own work. The images I attached include: a) roughs of different shapes and illusions with a focus on understanding how they are constructed, b) ruled pencil sketches of the same illusions using triangles and t-square, c) tracings that include the silhouette and alternate options of each shape depending on internal line selection, and d) some fun with graph paper. The sketches on the final graph paper submission were inspired by an interest in Roman ruins and imagining what an archeological excavation site might look like. Some of the elements got a bit wonky because I was trying to stick to axonometric projection just using the grid, but I sometimes veered towards using perspective just out of habit. Any feedback or thoughts are welcomed. Thanks :-)

I initially tried to work with small tools. After acquiring an 18” Tsquare and 9” triangles I taped down the work on my board and went to town. I found myself reasoning the image as I did roughs to the point of understanding the architecture enough to just construct it. This was after a few miserable tries. What started out as a brain teasing conundrum is now a fun puzzle to figure out. What a good feeling!

Tried the triangle and then constructing something new. It’s very helpful if you draw guiding lines past the length of whatever line you’re currently drawing. Makes it easier to align that edge with another one that is at the other side of the construction.

Here is some of my isometric illusion practice.