Perspective in Action: Creative Exercises for Depicting Spatial Representation from the Renaissance to the Digital Age by David Chelsea

Perspective in Action: Creative Exercises for Depicting Spatial Representation from the Renaissance to the Digital Age Reviews

• 
  Carly

  As someone who dabbles in sketching and drawing, I'm always interested in improving my knowledge, especially in areas where I'm particularly weak such as figure drawing and perspective. I was therefore thrilled to have the opportunity to read David Chelsea's Perspective in Action. The most interesting aspect of the book, in my opinion, is the style. Almost the entire book is actually written in comic book style, with each frame helping to demonstrate various techniques and rules. Unfortunately, I think the book was a bit too advanced for me.
  
  The author notes that this is the third in a series, and it does start with the assumption that the reader has mastered--or at least is cognizant of-- the techniques in the first two books. It begins with a review of one-point, two-point, and three-point perspective that were a bit too fast for me to follow, and it only gets more advanced from there. The book discusses advanced techniques and applications such as the camera obscura, anamorphosis, cabinets of wonder, and six-point and stereo perspectives. As a non comic book reader, I didn't have the easiest time following frame by frame, but I definitely enjoyed the read, and even got rather sidelined into
  watching videos of the Ames Illusion on youtube. If you're already knowledgeable about the basics of perspective and are looking for more advanced techniques, then this book is definitely worth a look.
  
  ~3.5
  
  ~~I received an advanced reader copy of this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Ten Speed Press/Watson-Guptill, in exchange for my honest review.~~
  
  Cross-posted on
  BookLikes.
• 
  Diane Estrella

  I think the author did a great job bringing this topic to life, through interesting pictures, historic beginnings, and a number of different "perspectives." This is a very complicated process, and while I do feel the author explained it in the best and funnest way possible, it is not an easy art technique to learn, regardless.
  
  I had gotten this book for my son, but I feel it is way too advanced for his limited artistic skills. Even in the first couple of chapters, he and I were both lost on how beginners such as ourselves could easily proceed. Maybe after my son has some more training and a bigger desire to dig in deep with this particular concept, we can give it another try.
  
  I received this book from the publisher but was not required to leave a review. All opinions expressed here are my own.
• 
  Fenriz Angelo

  Very interesting book about different kind of perspectives and how they can be done. It has clear explanations of the mediums artists have used to achieve the sense of perspective in their drawings through history and as an art student the knowledge of this information can open your eyes to find ways to solve composition problems in a illustration. I highly recommend this book.
  
  I'm curious about the book Extreme perspectives, it's clear there's a lot of useful things to learn of the topic; things that teachers don't teach you in art school.
• 
  Ionia

  I liked this book right away, as it is different than a lot of other books that only teach you basic perspective. I loved the inclusion of historical information on how artists use perspective to achieve different themes and such in their work.
  
  As for learning perspective, this is a really good book to start with, because the author includes a section of the book on the basic perspectives and shows you how to mark them out and achieve them. Therefore, if you are not familiar with the basic terms and are new at drawing in perspective, you can begin and end with this one book. It is rather comprehensive, but starts out slow enough that you can easily follow the steps with your own drawings.
  
  Overall, this is a greatly useful tool for anyone wanting to learn or improve their drawing technique and I think it would be a wonderful addition to any artist's library.
  
  his review is based on a complementary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
• 
  Anusha Narasimhan

  A great book for aspiring artists. Highly recommended if you like to draw!
  
  Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. This has not influenced my review in any way.
• 
  The Caffeinated Scribbler

  Originally posted on
  Cuppa Novels
  
  I was super psyched to read this book because I’ve been wanting to work on using perspective, and David Chelsea is a well-established cartoonist and artist. And my favorite thing about Perspective In Action? It’s written like a comic book.
  
  Each frame is used to demonstrate the various technique and rules Chelsea is teaching his audience. It’s the best visual aid, and an excellent way to show versus tell. He doesn’t walk you step-by-step, but he gives you an idea of what you should be aspiring to. This is the third book in a series, so it’s assumed the reader has already mastered earlier skillsets/actually read the other 2 books. (Yours truly had not.) He does do a refresher course for the stragglers - the one-point, two-point, three-point perspectives - but it kicks off from there into advanced territory.
  
  If you’ve already mastered the basics of perspective and are looking for a challenge, you’ll be able to go through Chelsea’s book and work through some of the exercises. Be warned, each exercise is a full project simplified by comics. If you’re still starting out and haven’t come to a perspective aha moment yet, this book is a little complicated. Each exercise will seem unapproachable (right now).
  
  Perspective In Action is so fascinating in the way it describes advanced techniques and applications like the camera obscura, anamorphosis, cabinets of wonder, six-point, stereo perspectives. The secrets of optical illusions will blow your mind. Now I fully understand 3D sidewalk chalk. And the Ames Room. All about perspective and your vantage point. Like I mentioned, Chelsea sets up exercises for you so that you can paint on mirrors, create illusions of your own within your art. Some of the activities I wonder if anyone will even do, but I’m assuming he’s tried them all. I kept getting flashbacks to high school art class, and thought this would be a wonderful book for a teacher to use for Advanced Perspective. It’s engaging and visual enough to get students flipping through the pages if they’re hungry for more.
  
  Overall, a great find, but a little too much for me since I’m still so new with perspective. That doesn’t mean I’m not sharing the recommendation with my more skilled art friends. It’s an awesome read and wonderful addition to the Art world.
  
  Perspective In Action: 3.75 stars
  
  I received a copy of this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Alicia

  This is a great hands-on book about everything perspective and a bit more: from the basics of point perspective to the novelty (for me) of stereo and motion perspective techniques.
  
  I was already familiar with the basics of perspective but never ventured to further research or experiment (I found the theory and technical part of it too complicated), but this book has what i needed to spark my interest and that is: DIY projects for every technique, lots of pictures illustrating every step (the book looks like a comic book: meaning that the illustrations are the book, not just scattered random images) plus simple explanations that a kid or teenager could understand. This last point was my favorite, if a graphic novel format makes my brain more comfortable while learning, so be it. - I got my e-ARC though NetGalley - I want a papercopy now.
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  Odin Wallace

  The book is written in a graphic novel format. Perspective in Action features demonstrations to teach perspective. The book presented a complex topic in a format that was easy for me to grasp. As an Artist and Photographer, perspective is a huge part of the creative process. Perspective is a fundamental element in the development of art and for understanding spatial relationships, but it is an underserved topic in the world of art instruction. "Author and artist David Chelsea take readers through the major perspective-related developments in history, teaching them how to re-create these same experiments by leading artists in all fields... Perspective in Action gives readers a more hands-on approach to perspective, as opposed to the usual theoretical presentations found in other books."
• 
  Debra

  The beginning of the book was helpful for me. It quickly became more in-depth than I was capable of. I was looking for drawing techniques to assist with my painting. This book was more appropriate for an architect. When the author got to anamorphosis he lost me.
  
  I received this galley from NetGalley.
  
• 
  Stephanie (Gorelenore) Cover2CoverBlog

  It has been a long time since I have been in an art class and I was excited to see this book as an option to review - I have been trying to get back into drawing lately and felt like a refresher was due. I have always been pretty terrible with perspective if I am not actively using it in drawing and I understand the concept and have even been ok at it in the past after a lesson or two. This book, while it is a wonderful way of presenting the information might just have been past my level of comprehension. I understood a good amount of if but once I was lost, I was long-gone. However the book did make up for my lack of ability with some other fun things.
  
  This art book is not like any I have used in the past, it is in a graphic novel format, so loads of pictures and instructions, it is also a history of sorts as well. The book breaks down a bunch of different ways older artists might have used perspective and the techniques they used to 'cheat the system'. I enjoyed reading about those and then seeing the modern adaptations of them. While I was not able to try any yet, I think they could be very fun to play with when I have the time and materials available.
  
  Overall, this was a very interesting art book, there was a lot of great informative information but perspective is a hard one to fully grasp and sometimes it takes not only a book but a demonstration - art is hands on so that is what I think was missing for me here.
  
• 
  Agnes Preszler

  I've found the title a bit misleading or maybe it's my fault, I thought it would be about perspective and dynamism, but here the action you have to take it yourself, in fact it's more a DIY book than anything else. Surely the arguments are all related to art, but you don't have to be an artist in order to carry out the projects described in detail, simple tools and a bit of ability in DIY, drawing or painting will do it. What you need above all is a curious mind and a lot of time and patience. The projects include the camera obscura, Brunelleschi's invention, the Ames room and much more. An entire chapter is dedicated to the anamorphosis,
  From the one-point perspective to the stereo and motion perspective, all the visual illusions based on perspective are explained. and illustrated.
  The volume, unique of its kind for the extremely practical approach and for the presentation that resembles a comic strip and is very enjoyable.
• 
  Chris

  This was not the book I was looking for. I wanted something with some basics of perspective and this turned out to be a hugely technical discussion of realistic perspective. Sentences like . . . "A line drawn directly under the 45 degree vanishing point at exactly the same angle will meet the horizon at the central vanishing point" caused severe eye glaze. I think this book will be extremely helpful to anyone interested in perspective but not so much to someone who is just looking for some hints for drawing better landscapes and still lives.