All drawing is about technique and skill — at least until you add artistic inspiration to the equation. And technique and skill are really just tricks, when you think about it.
Photo: Visual Hunt
When I was in year eight, our art class culminated in big drawings done in two-point perspective, rows of blocks and buildings receding off to paired vanishing points on the horizon. We did this with long rulers — a laborious and surprisingly imperfect system — but whether you’re a high-schooler sketching an imaginary city or you’re a professional architect working out a design, Reddit user awawawoooooo shared a GIF that shows a brilliant shortcut:
In the animation, architect Reza Asgaripour has a string pinned to the vanishing points, hooked by a paper clip. Asgaripour pulls the paper clip to the point he wants to draw from, and the string runs straight lines to the vanishing points. The paper clip can slide along the length of the string, moving to wherever Asgaripour wants to draw from.
awawawoooooo says of Asgaripour’s Instagram, “I’d advise you not to go there. I’m crushed by how good he is.” But don’t be intimidated by Asgaripour’s work — be inspired. Tricks and shortcuts will never make you an artist, but they can help you hurry down that path.
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