Rosalie posted this on our WhatsApp group:
“Monday morning and I thought this would be easy,
Not so”
I asked if she minded with me talking about this. I’m not criticising, just trying to help everyone.
On the whole this is a good drawing. The top is the most difficult bit and that’s very accurate.
Putting the images side by side like this you probably think it’s easy to see the differences.
So when I look at this what do I see?
A jug?
For the purpose of drawing I’ll forget about the colour and the shiny surface.
The height is the same as the width.
You will have seen artists holding a pencil at arms length and sizing their subject up with one eye closed. By this method proportions can be compared.
Because the height and the width are the same the outline of this jug will fit exactly into a square (or a circle).
Realising this makes the drawing a lot easier to construct.
With the pen I’m not copying exactly what I see, but creating a kind of 3 dimensional illusion.
I notice that the main light is coming from the front right, although the overall lighting is a bit diffused. A single light source may have been better.
So wouldn’t it be easier to buy a projector, or print a photo of the jug and just trace it?
Well yes but I want you to see this wonderful world through an artist’s eyes.
So there you have it…
‘THE VITRUVIAN JUG’