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PART I1 THE PAGE
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DRAWING CONVENTIONS
There are “rules” that allow two dimensional images to substitute for a three dimensional world.
Humans have two eyes, spread slightly apart. Our brains combine and interpret both the left and right images as three-dimensional space. The rest of our senses confirm this. As a media maker, it’s important to remind yourself once in awhile about what is subconsciously happening be- tween our eyes and our brains. For with this understanding comes insights about how to create work that will manipu- late human perceptions (in good ways, of course).
First, review the design elements by which Western eyes read two dimensional space. When your job is to conjure up and manipulate an image, you need a precise vocabulary in order to tap into the nearly automatic way people see.
Second, review the hidden structures within perspective drawings. Perspective is a technique of representing a plane— the spatial relation of objects as they might appear to the eye. There are layout rules that are not well understood, even by those who draw regularly.
point
When you draw an actual line on a specific surface, the resulting mark can have a variety of attributes. Lines come in many forms. They have position and direction (straight, squiggly, horizontal, and so on), variation and weight (thick and thin), qualities (jagged, decorative, busy), and kinds (fuzzy, cross-hatched, smudged, dotted). As obvious and familiar as they may be, designers use these terms all the time.
A point is a position in space.
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CHAPTER 4: ILLUSTRATION [ 141 ]
There is a point at the end of each line or at the juncture where two lines intersect. Norwegian designer Christian Leborg observes that when you try to draw a point, you do not end up with a true point but, instead, with a surface marked with a dot.
This and the following drawings are inspired by Christian Leborg’s small volume, Visual Grammar. This book pro- vides a nuanced and elegant text about the elements of two-dimensional and three-dimensional space. Courtesy Christian Leborg/Visual Grammar, Princeton Architectural Press
And then there are the circles: a fuzzy one, a dot- ted one, and a smudged one. All the terms highlighted here are more associative than descriptive. It is very hard to teach computers how to characterize the quality of lines in a way that humans do so effortlessly.
line
A line, like a point, is more a concept than an artifact. The first drawing (top left) shows how a line is made up of points. There are an infinite number of them.
A line is a long narrow mark or band. A straight line is the shortest distance between two points.
The collection of smaller drawings presents a gal- lery of lines. Different kinds of lines have the power to be amazingly expressive. The straight line is diagonal to the implied horizon. The jagged line has sharp angles and is easily distinguishable from the squiggly line, although they are traveling the same basic route. The decorative line repeats a pattern and has rhythm. The final varied line changes are weight (thickness) and degree of definition (smoothness) and even get a bit of color.