To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on. As said by the Chaucer character in Knights Tale.
I often trudge, not in the sense mentioned above. But I am prone to walk in a hunched, huddled manner, staring down at the approaching pavement, as the walls and road slide by in my peripheral vision.
And so, about a year or so ago I wanted to capture my viewpoint as I trudge. Again, being less than 5' tall will probably be a factor in the viewpoint.
As I trudge, the normal view of perspective is askew. But how? When I look down, straight down, at the floor I found that the 'picture plane' is parallel to the floor, and therefore to the canvas. Interesting. The vanishing point is central on the middle point at the bottom of the page I draw on here, pretty much where my toes are.
It's not easy to stand, hunched over, holding a sketchbook and pencil in your hands and remain still while observing and mapping your surroundings. But it's very rewarding to look at the resulting picture and found you've nailed a small bit of the puzzle.
All alone, in the quiet, I sit and ponder, then grab my notebook and start to draw. Tiny details creep into view; cracks in the lino, chipped chipboard doors.
Bear in mind this wasn't drawn from life. Here's the difference between the view when I walk along looking straight ahead, and the view when I stoop and stare at the pavement some way ahead of me, say 8 feet ahead.
Including a reproduction of Poseidon from Dublin, a Jessie Marion King repro tile from Glasgow, two turquoise scarab beads from the British Museum in London, the Lincoln Imp from Lincoln Cathedral, a wicker fish my son and I made at a festival at Souther Lighthouse, the tin of candles from my annual subscription to Elle Decoration magazine, a turned bowl from teak taken from the Trincomalee frigate now restored at Hartlepool, photos of my wedding day taken at the promenade by our house, and my beautiful children.
... I made this study, with floor at an angle to the picture plane. I haven't pinned down the vanishing points yet, for the moment I just want to draw what I see, and maybe follow the lines later to see where they meet.
To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on. As said by the Chaucer character in Knights Tale.
