This project requires trusting what you see, using the “Check Back Method,” holding your project next to each step by step photos, and making adjustments. The supplies needed for “The Anamorphic Glass” is a pencil, kneaded eraser, Tombov Mono eraser, (hard, medium, & soft) Charcoal pencils, *the new woodless charcoal pencils are great, stumps, and a hand guard to protect your drawing from smudges and smearing. I used 9×12 Bristol paper for this project. Let’s begin…
Step 1- Draw a semi circle, in landscape position, 5 1/8th’s inches from left to right and 2 7/8th’s inches down from the top of your Bristol Paper.
Step 2- Turn your paper around and draw the organic shape, shown above, inside the semi-circle. From the right side of the semi-circle extend a dangling line down, keeping it close and parallel, and stopping in the middle.
Step 3- Pick up extra graphite on the paper with a kneaded eraser prior to tracing the lines with a Hard Charcoal pencil. Fill in the shape with a Soft Charcoal pencil and use a Stump to make it solid. Draw, starting from the right side, a slight curved line that straightens into a parallel line and curves up right at the point the bottom shape goes down. Thicken the curve and draw a small triangle above it. On the left side of the semi-circle, draw a slightly curved triangle positioned equal to the height of the straight line.
Step 4- Put 2 dots above the straight line, with the right dot a little higher. Make sure it is slightly above the curved line on the left.
Step 5- From each dot, draw curved lines inward, connecting to the line. Draw a curved line across, connecting the 2 dots. The shape looks like a boat after you fill it in using a Soft Charcoal pencil and blending with a stump to make it nice and solid.
Step 6- On the right side, draw a curved line beginning from the top of the small triangle across then down to the line. *Notice the curve going down, curves inward parallel to the side of the “boat” shape. Make sure you leave a space between the original triangle and curved line.
Step 7- Extend the line up on the right side. The line should be tilted slightly to the right, not staight. Draw a parallel line that begins on the left side of the “boat” shape, stopping a little past the middle.
Step 8- Connect the curve on the left side to just a little below the top of the “boat” shape. Make sure it’s narrowly pointed at the tip.
Step 9- Connect the line, just above the “boat” shape to the extended line on the right. Use the negative space, the white space makes, as a guide. Continue the curve upwards, on the left side, make sure it does not extend past the original semi-circle.
Step 10- On the left side, draw a line slanted slightly to the left and curved slightly inwards at the top. At the top of the line, draw a thick line angled downwards and separate it into 2 thin lines. At the bottom of the line, draw a straight line angled towards the original semi-circle. Draw another line parallel above the bottom line.
Step 11- Connect the triangle, on the top of the original semi-circle, by drawing a straight line to the bottom shape. *Notice this encloses the first organic shape you drew inside the semi-circle. Tip: Always be aware of where one shape is positioned in relation to the other shapes around it, including the size and height of the shape/s. Notice the next shape on the top of the curved line. The lines, to make this shape, is smaller on the left side and taller on the right side. Copy the shape above. Draw the triangle on the left side of the shape and iclude 2 dangling lines above it. Extend a line, coming from the top of the shape on the right side.
Step 12- Shade in the areas above with a stump.
Step 13- Thicken the line on the right side of the shape you just drew. Extend the line up slightly and draw a “flag” shape. Draw a line beginning at the bottom of the “flag” shape and connect it curving up to the curved line on the right side. Extend the outside line, on the right side, up slightly. Draw a line on top of it slanted in and down a bit. Add two curved lines below it. Notice the weight and length of the lines and duplicate.
Step 14- Blend with stump.
Step 15- Extend the outside line on the left side. *Make sure it is a straight line, slanted left. Connect to the curved lines inside. Notice the top line is straight and the bottom is curved. Fill in a solid shape on the left and blend the center with a stump.
Step 16- Extend the outside lines on both sides. Draw 2 lines on both sides slanting in and slightly downwards. Fill in the bottom of the “flag” shape.
Step 17- Extend the outside lines of the glass. *Check your line with a ruler. Draw a wide arc on top.
Step 18- Turn your paper upside down. Draw half of an oval centered in the arc. Inside the oval, draw a curve, from left to right, ending with a narrow pointed “wave like” shape. On the outside of the oval draw a small curved line on both sides.
Step 19- Draw a small “L” shape on the right side. Using a Medium Charcoal, copy the solid shape around the “L” with a curved line extending out, stopping at the middle. Make the weight of the line thicker on the oval. Draw a small line, on the left side, outside the oval.
Step 20- I put the same picture side by side to show the height of the next shapes. When it’s upside down your eyes tend to stretch out and lengthen the shapes. Use the “Check Back Method” to complete this step and hold up your artwork next to this example, compare, and make adjustments if needed.
Step 21- Continue building up shapes, trusting your eyes, and copy using the “Check Back Method.” Extend the sides of the glass. *Check the lines, with a ruler, to make sure the slants are straight lines.
Step 22- Draw an arc. Notice how low it dips down and how narrow the space is where it connects to each side. Tip: You may want to use a pencil before commiting the arc to Charcoal. Draw curved arcs falling from the top of the glass down.
Step 23- Draw the arc on top to complete the top of the glass. Use a pencil, again, before you commit to Charcoal. Stand up and look down at the glass when making adjustments. *For this illusion to work, holding it up, to look at it, won’t work.
Step 24- Add the lips of the glass. The lip on the bottom is drawn below the arc. The lip on the top is drawn inside the arc. Notice the lips on each side go from narrow, to wider, then back to narrow. Use the “Check Back Method” to complete the curved images inside the glass and hold up your artwork next to this example, compare, and make adjustments if needed. Notice the curve moves over, under, then over the front side behind (not on top of) the lip of the glass. Shade inside the oval with the “wave like” line. Look at the example, it is not to completly filled it in. Use a blender to soften the shapes and vary values inside.
Step 25- Shade in the middle area and blend with your finger.
Step 26- Pull out highlights with a kneaded eraser in the middle area. Adjust the values with charcoal, a stump, and kneaded eraser. Compare your drawing side by side with this example.
Step 27- Using a Hard Charcoal pencil, begin the cast shadow starting from the left side of the glass. The shadow begins a little above the side of the glass. Extend a circular arc on the front left side of the glass. Darken the shadow in the little area next to the glass. Notice it has a triangular shape. *Disregard the circular shape inside the top of the glass, I will address that area in step 32.
Step 28- Using the side of a Medium Charcoal pencil, lightly shade in the next areas of the cast shadow. Notice the right side of the shadow is cast left of the right side of the glass. The shadow does not begin at the edge of the glass. There is a curved highlight, in the middle, between the left and right side of the cast shadow in front of the glass.
Step 29- Make a “light bulb” shape using a Hard Charcoal pencil. Notice where the shadow starts on the left and ends on the right side. Soften the inside shadow with a stump.
Step 30- Copy the cast shadow above using the “Check Back Method.” Compare your Anamorphic Glass shadow next to this example. Remember to stand up and look down at your drawing to check your illusion.
Step 31- Fine tune the cast shadow. Use shading, a stump, and kneaded eraser to vary the values and highlights. *Notice the shadow is darker closest to the glass and begins to fade the farther away it gets.
Step 32- Turn your picture upside down and lightly sketch a highlight in the glass.
Step 33- Shade in lightly and blend with a stump.
Step 34- Pull out highlights in the glass. Use a pinched kneaded eraser to make the narrow curved lines and overlap areas to make thicker more solid areas. Tweak and adjust values until your Anamorphic Glass looks realistic. Remember to stand up and look down at the drawing, don’t hold it up and look at it from an arms distance away. It is meant to appear as if the glass of water is sitting on the table and you can pick it up and take a drink.