The main problem with trying to depict a building – or any other figure or object – in a drawing is that we are trying to show the three dimensional world on a two dimensional plane and so are burdened with too much information, one dimension too many.

Three point perspective can provide a satisfactory solution, as  in this illustration of Tate Modern:

Three point perspective drawing of Tate Modern for Digital Artist

There are – however – a couple of things to consider with this piece.

Firstly, the view depicted and the angle it is drawn from were chosen with the intention of making a large, rectangular building the focal point. The solid shape of Tate Modern dominants the piece and provides structure to the rest of the composition and the unfussy architecture makes getting the perspective right on this building relatively simple.

The other consideration when choosing this view as a subject was that the area is relatively open and the three main points of interest (the Tate, the Millennium Bridge and the Globe Theatre) are all spaced quite well around one another and the real life position of all the key elements makes for a good, well spaced composition.

With a different landscape as the subject, one might find more problems occurring in the drawing.

St Paul’s Cathedral.

St Paul’s Cathedral is interesting for a number of reasons, but the most fascinating characteristic for me is the radial structure of the dome. During a university seminar, I remember being told that the dome was influenced by the Tempietto in Rome and that the design of this had been, in turn, influenced by the architecture of the ancient Roman Republic.

The radial aspect of the Tempietto works two ways; the dome radiates out and up – towards heaven – and the pillars radiate out to the sides. The original plan was for the Tempietto to be surrounded by architecture that continued this radial effect; this never happened, but it’s something I remembered when I was looking at viewpoints from the top of St Paul’s Cathedral and discovered this view of Paternoster Square:

Screenshot showing Paternoster Square near St Paul's

The radial design in Paternoster Square interested me greatly and I thought it might work rather well in a composition with the cathedral dome.

However, when I worked out a plan of the cathedral in three point persepective, the square was hidden by the dome:

A photoshop plan of the three point perspective of the scene

The problem that faced me was that I wanted, with this drawing, to create a real sense of space, as opposed to a surreal one. However, to fit the interesting elements of the view onto the page, I needed to juggle them a little.

What I decided was to still use the perspective lines I’d laid out at the start as my guide, but to arrange the buildings on the page around the main focal point, rather than try to draw them where they might realistically occur. Here’s my first sketch:

As you can see, I erased some of the lines around the building and tried to draw the Square in so that it slotted neatly next to the dome of the church. Here’s a later draft, with some lines drawn in using pen:

And here’s a close up of the page (any distortions are due to the camera angle) :

The aim of this drawing is to combine a realistic sense of perspective with a slightly distorted and imaginative arrangement of the subject matter. I need the imaginative aspects to be extremely subtle; nothing should read as being ‘off’ for the viewer. There will be more updates on this piece to come and it’s quite possible that this drawing might serve as a study for a final piece of artwork.