Another fun Proko project. I did two sets of drawings--one set from memory and the other from memory but imagining it at a different angle. I was focusing on trying to get the perspective logic right for the main primitive forms, not worrying too much about proportions or smaller more detailed forms. I found that it sometimes turned out to be less an exercise in memorizing the reference than in reinventing it--i.e., not just inventing the forms in perspective but trying to have them make sense in terms of how the object might actually function. Thinking through the clamp at the bottom of the meat grinder had me scratching my head a few times. (I am tempted to say it felt like my head was going through a meat grinder, but it wasn't really that bad.) I am still trying to improve my ellipse drawing skills, but still have a ways to go.

I think this is a great approach in helping to understand the structure of the head in perspective--like a somewhat more analytical Loomis head. I'm still working on a few things: getting the placement of the chin right in some of the more extreme angles and working out the form intersection of the underside of the chin with the neck; getting the placement of the side plane/ellipse right; and getting the shape of the eye sockets right; etc. But it is becoming clearer to me the more I practice. Thanks.

Here are my week 4 drawings. This has been a blast. Some items were certainly more challenging than others. The loaf of bread seemed like a piece of cake (actually, a loaf of bread) relatively speaking. Drawing myy drawing desk, though, was quite challenging--both in terms of the perspectives and in drawing the hands. (This was inspired by a famous drawing by Saul Steinbeerg of a hand drawing a hand.) This one taught me how much I still need to work on perspective and on drawing hands! Thanks!

And here are my week 3 drawings. Week 4 drawings are in process. I really have been enjoying this challenge. It really helps in practicing perspective and line quality, though I certainly have a ways to go in developing those skills. I never realized before how so many things contain so many ellipses. Except for the organic ellipses in the pineapple slices, which have a lot of bumps and gnarly shapes in them and are therefore pretty forgiving of the elliptical imperfections in my drawings, I am finding it pretty hard to get them just right--or even kinda sorta right. But the practice here is helpful.

And here are my Week 2 drawings . . .

I'm playing a little catch-up here. . .Here are my Week 1 drawings . . .

Here are ginger roots, a couple attempts at lobsters, and some ginger-root people in various heroic or at least ridiculous poses. It's amazing how much information these cross-contour lines convey, transforming blobby shapes into volumes that go away from or come toward you. (Not sure I always got that right.) This is a very fun and useful project. Thanks.

Here are a few sets of blobs-to-boxes. I started with individual blobs/boxes, then combos, then box-people from imagination. Underneath the black box lines are faint sepia blob lines. The boxes ended up a bit messier than I would have liked and the proportions of the torsos are off. Oh well. I'll keep practicing. This has been a fun project, like doing the hand boxes. .

Here's my third attempt at the Level 1 head boxes. The changes tended to be fairly subtle from version to version, and i think (hope) my ability to analyze the perspeectives was beginning to improve with practice. But there is definitely room for further improvement. I did these in pencil and did erase from time to time. Next time, I'll try this using pen to challenge myself more. I found in this as well as in the previous 1-point perspective exercises, that it only takes a slight error in the angle of any of the box lines to make the drawing look "off." As I look at my latest version of the boxes, I am seeing a number of errors of this sort. Maybe that's a good sign--that the practice is helping to calibrate my brain so that I can detect finer differences. Who knows? Time and practice will tell.

Here's a 1-point perspective drawing of a room, which features a piano, a bookcase and other assorted furniture, including, of course, a kitchen sink with dirty dishes. In the chair at the front of the room, observing it all, is a fellow smoking a pipe. In keeping with this project, he's rendered as a block head (like me). Perhaps he stepped out of a George Bridgman drawing. I have also attached a picture showing parallel and perpendicular perspectives on perspective. I wish I had drawn it. It's a cartoon by Paul Karasik appearing in the October 9, 2023 edition of The New Yorker. Thought you would enjoy it. Cheers!