( music playing )
- How are you? -
Hi, I'm Terry Crews,
and I'm today's celebrity substitute.
Hi, I'm Rachel Hwang.
I teach art in Compton, California.
Do you know why every new smart phone
has an ultra wide lens?
It can take incredible pictures,
but to understand how,
we need to learn two important visual concepts.
Today, we're talking about perspective and foreshortening.
So joining me today to help teach this lesson
is a special celebrity substitute.
Modern-day Renaissance man--
drumroll-- Terry Crews!
Yay! What's up, Rachel?
- Hey. - Hey, hey.
I love the joy in your face.
You make the difference for these kids.
I just want to give that out to you right now.
I'm honored, honored to be here.
Oh, thank you. I'm gonna start crying.
Please don't.
Our last lesson, which you can check out any time here on YouTube,
focused on scale and proportion.
We learned that they're essential
for drawing realistically,
and can help us understand the relationships
between objects in our artwork.
This lesson, I was hoping we could
take it a little bit further
and apply it into foreshortening,
because that's something a lot of my students,
like, they love that kind of dynamism and that design,
but they're having trouble
with really articulating it on paper.
Today, we're going to explore
how playing around with size and distance
can take your art to the next level.
I'm taking over your lesson
on perspective and foreshortening.
Aah!
One of the most important tools
in any artist's toolkit is perspective.
Perspective is what makes a flat drawing
or painting feel three dimensional.
It's what makes art look real.
A classic example of perspective
is an image of a road
that's disappearing off into the distance.
Note that in this photograph,
the sides of the road get closer and closer together
until they finally almost touch.
Now, we know that in reality
this road is always the same width,
but because of perspective,
the road appears to be getting father
and farther away from us.
So if we want to recreate this in a drawing or a painting,
we need to mimic how it looks in real life.
To do that, we create a point
where the lines almost touch called a vanishing point.
Remember, guys, pro tip.
Creating a vanishing point
is a key tool in using perspective.
That type of perspective,
when an object appears to be further away
because it's smaller, is called foreshortening.
Now, we can play around and see foreshortening
by using this camera, a phone, or even a mirror.
When I hold my one hand close to the camera
and pull my other hand way back,
you can see how one looks big and beautiful
and the other looks tiny.
If you were to draw an image from this perspective,
one of Terry's hands would be foreshortened
to show the depth of his arm in the background of the image.
But if you were to draw the image from this perspective,
when I'm holding both hands on the same plane,
you can see that you'd draw both hands the same size.
Okay, so now that we have a sense
of what perspective and foreshortening are,
let's put 'em into practice.
- Here we go. -
Oh, before we get into sketching,
you know what that bell means, Terry?
It's time for Popular Table.
( crowd cheering )
Can you show us your favorite table in your house?
Oh, I can't wait.
This right here--
I'm gonna show you a little bit.
This is my favorite table. You know why?
My wife bought it. It's so beautiful.
It's glass. It's got gold.
Aww, that's sweet.
You know what? I also-- I gotta show you this, too.
I gotta show you this, too.
There's a big version of me right here, too,
- if you haven't seen that. -
I like to look at myself. So we can-- we can go--
( canned laughter, applause )
Okay, we gotta get back into the lesson.
I'm going to sketch a person running.
It seems simple, but as an artist,
it's one of the hardest things to draw
because you really have to be a master
of perspective and foreshortening.
I've seen even really amazing artists struggle with it.
It's the easiest thing to get wrong.
Remember, the first step in creating any image
is just to break it down.
Use your basic shapes--
circles, the rectangles and the squares.
Maybe you could add a road with a vanishing point
in the background so we can have a reference
as to where the runner is moving towards.
That is a great idea.
Also, when you're shading, you have to think about
where you want the light to come in from your drawing.
( music playing )
I like to start out, when I do a drawing--
it's basically stick figures.
A head.
Then this is the arm.
( muttering )
And there's the other arm.
So, as you can see, what Terry is doing again
is that he's really just breaking everything down.
Remember, art is just like-- it's like life.
It's messy, it's fun,
and if it's going to be full of the ride that it is,
like what we're all experiencing right now,
you might as well have a big laugh through it.
Sometimes, honestly, what you think is a mistake
is actually the best thing that can happen in your artwork.
Terry : All these lines represent something.
This is his back, these are his shoulders.
Here is his head.
And here's that arm that's way in the back.
And here's some foreshortening here.
Um, notice this forearm is really in the front,
and this calf has to be
the biggest thing going on here.
You could totally see, like,
he's got some tree trunks on him right there.
Yeah, he's got those big football thighs, you know what I mean?
He does. He really does.
You know, a lot of artists draw things on all one plane...
- Mm-hmm. - ...and you don't get the sense
of perspective or foreshortening at all.
So I'm trying to really push this.
And that's actually what a lot of cartoons are really good at.
Totally, comic books for sure.
- Manga, Japanese anime, cartoons... - Terry: Yes.
...they're so good at foreshortening
because they have such a itty bitty little space to work with,
they need to add as much story into that space as possible.
When you look at our foreshortening and perspective,
the whole thing is he's reaching out,
so the forearm is actually the biggest thing
kind of coming at you,
and also this shin here
is also the biggest thing that is coming at you,
and where the arm is further back
and this leg and foot
is actually hiding behind the other one.
And I love what you said about dealing with rectangles,
circles, uh, triangles, the whole thing.
This is all that right now.
This is basically a stick figure that you build on top of.
And, let me tell you, when you really get it,
it almost doesn't matter what he looks like.
Because if the foreshortening and perspective is right,
people believe it.
I was wondering, what's the story?
What is this person running away from?
Is he running into something? Like, is he a football player?
- Yes. - Or is he running away from something?
Like, is it like the charging of the bulls?
Like-- and that's where the perspective
comes into from our previous lesson.
What is behind him and what's in front of him
to really add to what's going on?
What is it that you're trying to translate
onto the paper right now?
All right, I'm giving him a little bit of a road
with a little bit of something on the side
just so we can--
he may be running down a hallway.
Here we go. There's a little bit of a hallway,
road-ish type thing, if you can see it.
Rachel: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
So it kind of gives it a little more perspective.
Did you notice he has a goatee just like me?
In fact, he is me! ( laughs )
Rachel: What are you running away from?
This is me when quarantine is over.
( man yelling )
Running out the door.
When we talk about a vanishing point,
I just imagined it was coming right from the center of him.
And the vanishing point is actually right there,
and here's the horizon right there.
And then you make the road go right to the vanishing point.
- Rachel: Yes. - Everything lands right on that,
and it creates the most beautiful illusion.
If I had seven more hours, this thing would look amazing.
Rachel: I believe it. I believe it.
This drawing that you just finished
is a perfect illustration
of what foreshortening really is.
And, remember, this final image looks realistic,
but it started with just a bunch of basic shapes.
Rachel:
why do our phones have ultra-wide lenses?
Because getting more depth in your images
can make a regular picture look amazing.
Like this. Pa-kow!
See, the trick is simply
a matter of perspective.
Whoo!
And you could just apply
and be a teacher right now, at this point.
I can hand you over the art program.
I'm sure my students will be completely thrilled.
You know what? Maybe you should tell my kids,
'cause maybe they can listen to me now.
Okay, I-- for sure, I will. I will.
They're like, "Daddy, you don't know. You don't know at all."
Kids.
There's a lot more where that came from.
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