The Secret of Simple Forms

Last lesson we learned that there are multiple ways to create the illusion. Some easy, some not. Let's solve them all with a single skill.

Two of our illusionary tricks are easy. Overlap. Super simple.

Atmosphere. Things fade into the background. No brainer.

Three of the secrets take study and practice. For shortening, it's not as easy as it doesn't look. Beginners seldom dare.

Diminution, easy to estimate when we don't need to get it exact. Less easy when we want it exact. And convergence to vanishing points, not hard to know they exist, not always easy to know where they are.

Foreshortening, well-placed vanishing points, and precise shrinking in the distance are difficult skills, but we shall pursue them and this lesson's project will show you why. It points to one major skill that solves all of those problems once you've mastered it. It is reducing a complex form into a simple one that you can draw into any position.

That is the skill. If your goal is to not have to copy, But to look, then reinvent your image, here's how you won't learn to do that. Drw an object.

Copy what you see. Take pains to get it exact. Get it exact.

Put in detail. Lots of detail. Make sure you don't miss any detail.

Now, draw it again in a different position without looking at the object in that position. Make it up. Can't do it?

Here is the lesson. Copying may help you notice detail, but it won't help you redraw the thing with the detail into another position. That takes skill with form.

Let me show you how we learn to do that. Drw an object as simplified form. A box, for example.

Then, in another position, draw the box again. Now we have line systems. Those are the secret.

They will take time. Here is the thing. We can't reposition until we establish a structure.

Once we position a box, its three line systems solve all other lines. This is a secret that many don't know. Most of this course is about that and how to apply it to things and to settings.

Settings have line systems. Right angled streets, for example. Streets are not objects so much as environments, where lines may mean long distances, even a journey.

We'll get to settings after we've learned to draw objects. They have lots in common. Big settings often have big diminution, but so do small objects seen by small creatures.

Up close. Big or small, it's the same set of principles and I must warn you, even though we'll start with objects before we get to environments, some objects are difficult. Objects with lots of parts, ins and outs, lots of oblique angles, these are too much for beginners.

The same with anatomy. Hands, for example, are complex objects. 16 forms.

Movable. Not for beginners. Skeletal studies.

Turning the bones into 3D components. Such things are for artists who know this already, aspire to this. That's where we're going, but don't start there.

The same with any organic forms. Animal bodies. Muscle masses.

Hang in there for that. Before we learn complex organic forms, we learn simple blocky ones. Now for the project.

Challenge yourself. See if you need perspective. Choose something worthy to study.

Place it in three-quarter view. Drw it as if it were boxed. Don't put in detail.

Even if you love detail, go for the form. Now, draw it again in another position. You can draw from real life objects, or from other drawings, or photos.

That's fine, no cheating that way. You have to invent when you can't see the other position. Anything really.

But if you're new to this, choose a thing that is already simplified, already boxy. It may seem boring as form perhaps, but it will make the point. Drwing something simple into imaginary positions prepares you to do this with anything drawable.

When you advance, you will use multiple forms: blocks, wedges, cylinders, toruses, spheres. Let's look at spheres for a moment. Spheres as forms.

This is a circle in circles. And a sphere in circles. So is this.

Sort of. This is a sphere in a sphere. So is this.

Sort of. Spheres are such simple forms and so appealing you may be tempted to start with them. And some people do.

Andrew Loomis taught cartoonists to invent heads by reducing them to simplified spheres. But two things to know in advance about spheres. One is that placing ellipses on spheres precisely is very advanced, more difficult than you may think.

But the good news is, placing them not so precisely is easy. In Premium I'll teach you something like spheres, but much looser to start. The other thing is that accurate ellipses on spheres come from knowing accurate lines on boxes more than I want to explain here.

But I'll give you beginner-friendly versions in premium. I will introduce you to a freehand way to begin a form drawing that I call the blob approach. The blob approach?

The blob approach. A very simplified method of drawing a form from a shape with a cross contour line Or two. Or three.

That gets us started. Then we can work as much as we like on refining it. This is a challenging human activity exclusive to mammals with prefrontal cortexes.

Figure it out if you can. I'm here to help, but before you watch me draw this, I recommend that you try it yourself. That preps you for it.

It may look logical when you see it demoed, and it is logical, but if you haven't studied the logic, you'll find it more difficult than you expect. If, however, you have learned the forms. .

. Try your redrawings in several varied positions. It may inspire others and display your skill.

If you draw something worth sharing in our community, it shall be seen. If it's something worth showcasing, you shall be celebrated. First, simplify.

Understand it as form. Then draw another position that is not copying, that is creating. This is your challenge.

It takes some thought and it is the test to see if you need it or not. Now to reiterate, choose what you'll draw. I recommend something boxy.

Start with a blob to decide your direction. Using that blob as a base, sculpt out a simplified version. Then draw that blob in a different position.

Repeat. Do that at least three times, daring with different positions. Post your results at thislessononproko.

com and I'll show you how to approach this in detail, in premium at proko. com/perspective. In our next three lessons, we'll study the science of how all this form business works.

Orthos, axes, eye levels, picture planes, and in premium, the blob approach, cartoons, airplanes, and much more.