SUMMATIVE D Reflection: Perspective City Drawing
I decided to make a One-Point Perspective drawing because I want my street to create a forever-extending feeling and make the viewers feel like if they can actually walk into it when looking at my drawing.
First of all, I used a ruler to draw the horizontal line. I put my horizontal line a little bit lower than the middle because I want the viewer to focus on half and a little top side of the buildings in order to express the feelings of some hollow buildings and half of the road to balance the whole drawing. I labeled the eye level on the right side and vanishing point in the middle.
To start building the houses, I drew different cubes from various eye levels. To draw a cube I started with drawing a square. I used the ruler to draw a vertical line that is perpendicular to the horizontal line. With some space beside it, I drew another vertical line by using the ruler to make sure it is also perpendicular to the horizontal line. Then, I connected the two lines by drawing the other two horizon lines that are parallel to the horizontal line. After the square which is one side of the cube is formed, I would draw other sides of the cube. I used the ruler to connect the four corners toward the vanishing point, then I drew lines along with the ruler and stop at where I decided the how thick I want each of my building to be. Then I just connect the lines by drawing horizon lines that are parallel to the horizontal lines. I repeat these steps to make multiple cubes and fill in the whole drawing.
After sketching the basic structure of each building, I added more details like windows, doors, and signs. My idea of the architectural style was inspired by the city Prague in Czech. I visited Czech in the last winter. I could not forget the beautiful landscapes and the strong cultural atmosphere in the streets, so I chose to draw the city in the European style. I added some of my personal ideas because it is my imaginary city, I imagined that some of my buildings would be flying in the air and crosses each other. My drawing expresses the style of art from the old European history. I included elements of castles, churches, town halls, palaces, stores, and houses. The city is filled with Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque characteristics, such as the nightly towers, the symmetrical windows, and doors that create a sense of unity, shapes of round arches, triangles, curvy baroque arches, and squares. One example from my drawing is the Church of Our Lady before Týn in the middle. The cross vaults on the top of the church present the religion of Roman Catholic. After I completed my buildings, I also put street light and bricks on the road to fill the whole drawing so the front does not look too empty. These classic designs added cultural color and the historical value to both the city and my drawing.
In my work, I think I did well on the designs and the arrangement of the buildings. For example, the viewers can easily tell that my work is tending to form the atmosphere of the European style by looking at the drawing. I also make some of the houses cross each other and hanging in the air to create the sense of different layers and some sorts of movements. Most importantly, all of the vertical lines are perpendicular to the horizontal line and all of the horizon lines are parallel to the horizontal line.
I think I need to improve on rearranging the scale of the buildings and the bricks of the roads. The size of the church in the middle looks much bigger than the other buildings because the scale is not accurate so it does not match the scale of the other buildings. Also, the bricks on the roads should get smaller as the road reaching toward the vanishing point, I think some of them are too big so it does not match with the other buildings pretty well. The emphasis on the hollow buildings are not strong enough, I tried to shadow some part but it did not add much contrast to it.
In my peer Yujinia’s work, I think she did a very good job on the arrangement of the view of the city. She set her drawing a very nice angle so the viewers can see easily all the apartments and houses skyscrapers from the top of New York City. It strongly expresses the spectacular and modern designs of one of the world’s most popular city.