I’m now taking a perspective drawing class at the Toronto School of Art. It’s a longer course than the other ones I did this year, about 10 weeks. So far we have been working on one point perspective. I was hesitant at first of whether this was too basic for me, but there is plenty more than I imagined at first.

Closing the box

One idea is to “close the box” – which is to draw out the lines on the back of the box that you cannot see. We don’t do this for the sake of doing it. It actually helps you realize whether there was something off in the box’s lines – one isn’t parallel to another, or you don’t get to the vanishing point correctly.

Somehow, this seems to be metaphorical for other things in life. It’s like doing math and showing your working. Or more broadly, even the minute details somehow build out to something more important in the end.

Varying line weight

Another main comment was for me to vary my line weight. I’ve always heard of this and used to do it long ago when drawing characters in comics, but somehow it didn’t translate to drawing scenes. I did notice a distinct improvement in the interest of the drawing once I did it.

Build the fundamentals

We quickly built up beyond just drawing boxes vanishing to vanishing points. We made wedges, and then we started doing curves. I started making a boat under a bridge. It’s getting the fundamentals down to build a structure. Once you can walk, you can run.