What’s your perspective?

A wedge-shaped building situated on a grid of uneven streets is difficult to represent. Embrace the occasional imperfect arrangement.

It would seem obvious that the first step in setting up a sketch or layout for a cityscape or architectural subject would be to establish the lines of perspective. We have a collection of boxes presented to us and there is an absolute set of rules about visualizing these planes in space. You know the basics from high school art lessons — fine to have a grasp of. But you don’t need to accentuate it It’s a rule, not a feature or a quality.

We’re accustomed to the concept that perspective moves away from the eye. The lines recede into the distance and ‘vanish.’ I see the opposite. The lines of perspective shoot out from the horizon like a burst — a dynamic moving action. You’re not looking into a funnel. You’re seeing a bursting star.

Think also of the spokes of a wheel. They emanate from the hub and point outward. The hub holds the weight, but the outer wheel is the impactful part of the action. All the points of interest move outward from that central point. Not to say the further out, the more prominent. But sometimes, more distant features, positioned on the outer areas of the canvas, help to establish perspective, when more central elements have dominant forward-facing planes.

Your subject shouldn’t recede. It should charge out at you.