Perspective! I recently reviewed Gary Meyers first DVD on the principles of one point perspective (LINK), and as I stated it was incredibly humbling to be able to learn, even if it’s through a recorded video, from such an esteemed instructor. The next Gnomon Workshop DVD that I decided to review was also on perspective. Scott Robertson’s DVD, Basics Perspective Form Drawing, the Techniques of Scott Robertson, is a great tutorial for an artist wanting to incorporate better perspective practices into their everyday drawing.
Image Source: cargocollective.com
Scott Robertson is a designer and founder of Design Studio Press, a publishing company dedicated to inspiring and educational books and DVDs. He received a Bachelors of Science in Transportation Design from the Art Center College of Design. Scott worked as a product designer for many years with many different clients. Clients like; Kestrel, Giro Sport Design, Nissan, Volvo, and Yamaha. Scott moved to Switzerland to teach drawing and industrial design at Art Center, Europe for a couple years, before eventually returning back to the United States and garnering even more work with high profile clients like; Mattel Toys, Fiat, Nike, Patagonia, Universal Studios and even the movie Minority Report. Through out Scott’s career he has been able to be both successful as a designer while also an incredibly giving teacher. Upon returning to the United States Scott became a teacher at his alma mater, the Art Center College of Design where he taught for many years before resigning from that post recently. Whether it is through teaching on a DVD, in a classroom, or a free video tutorial he releases on Fridays, Scott Robertson has proved himself to be a fantastic designer and an incredible teacher.
As colleague and concept designer Harald Belker put it:
“Definitely one of the finer designers of our generation. Scott’s innovative designs bridge the gap between today’s fiction and tomorrow’s science. His attention to detail is sometimes mind blowing… but he is not somebody to keeps it all to himself. He is so concerned with teaching his knowledge to others that it makes him one of the top educators in digital and traditional art. ”
Image Source: thegnomonworkshop.com
Now let’s talk about the DVD. I found this DVD to be very educational, and extremely helpful. Even though I had recently watched another DVD on perspective by another teacher, and there was overlap in the information taught, I did not feel that my time was wasted learning the same thing. While Gary Meyer’s DVD is more technical and much more in depth for creating final perspective drawings, Scott Robertson’s DVD focuses more on perspective sketching. Scott teaches his methods for drawing straight lines, ellipses, and perspective grids all free-hand.
Image Source: thegnomonworkshop.com
The DVD is littered with great little tips for drawing objects in perspective without the use of any drafting tools like a T-square, or drawing triangle. Scott tends to draw on a pad so that he can spin the pad around to orient the paper in the most ergonomic way for him to draw different lines. He shares his warm up routines of drawing straight lines, circles, ellipses, and curved lines. His method for constructing perspective grids to draw objects on is very helpful in trying to develop a cleaner final sketch with fewer guidelines.
Image Source: thegnomonworkshop.com
After watching Scott’s DVD I find myself doodling perspective grids and ellipses on scrap papers lying around. I feel as though Scott Robertson’s DVD is a better introduction to many of the concepts involved with perspective, because of the skills taught that can free you from requiring so many tools to produce a perspective drawing and the actual run time of the DVD. This DVD is much shorter than Gary Meyer’s first volume, and because of its brevity Scott Robertson quickly goes through more techniques, but in less detail. I now find that having watched both, that I am happy that I can combine both excellent teachers’ methods into my own traditional art skills and knowledge base.