Surface is Illusion but so is depth
I'm taking a beginner's drawing class at North Seattle Community College. Today, we started on perspective. We began by watching a 45-minute video by David Hockney, where he contrasts three paintings: a Canaletto painting of Venice, and two Chinese scrolls painted 70 years apart.
The Canaletto is a classic two-point linear perspective painting. Both of the Chinese scrolls show trips by the emperor along the Grand Canal. The first one, by Wang Hui, is 27 inches high and 72 feet wide! It uses multiple perspective to show scenes, in a manner that is strange to my Western eyes. Hockney demonstrates how effective it is. For example, he shows a corner …continue.