Sunday, November 4, 2012

Gary Meyer teaches fundamentals of perspective drawing.

Gary Meyer, Gnomon Workshop, perspective drawing

The Gnomon Workshop has released a great new set of DVD's with illustration master Gary Meyer, explaining the disciplines of one, two and three point perspective drawing as he teaches you how set up things accurately to render a realistic image accordingly. This brand new set consists of three volumes and gives you the opportunity to join Gary Meyer at his drawing table in his studio while he goes into great detail about the concepts and terminology of perspective drawing.

Gary Meyer has served as a professor at the Art Center College of Design for 23 years. He was the recipient of the first Faculty Award (elected by the faculty of Art Center) and received seventeen Great Teacher Awards. Gary has also taught at Otis College of Art and Design, Universal Studios Design and Development and the Animation Institute of Los Angeles. He earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles.

Gary Meyer, Gnomon Workshop, perspective drawing

Above: Gary at the drawing table, as he teaches you the skills to draw a complete city accurately for commercial illustrations or even architectural designs.

Gary Meyer, Gnomon Workshop, perspective drawing

Above: the difference between one and two-point perspective, is that in the latter, the center of vision is not a vanishing point. Gary explains that the distance from a measuring point on the horizon line to the vanishing point must be equal to that of the vanishing point to the station point.

Aviation Art.


Meyer's love for aviation led him to join the Marines after high school. He served in Korea during the Korean War as an aviation electronics technician assigned to the First Marine Air Wing and made many drawings of military aircraft.

His ability to create highly realistic imagery of aircraft and actual combat scenes during the Vietnam war, gave him the opportunity to work with all major aircraft companies. Starting out working for North American Aviation as an illustrator for the Apollo program, he was involved with the first Moon landing and created a series of 40 illustrations that were photographically edited into a film, depicting one of the planned lunar missions.

Below: On May 10, 1972, the US Navy and Airforce bombed the Paul Doumer bridge across the Red River in Hanoi, North Vietnam. Meyer's painting depicts two F-4D Phantoms using new laser-guided bombs (LGBs) in the operation called 'Linebacker'.

Gary Meyer

Below: A Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet attacking harbor shipping and a pair of F4 Phantoms after departure from the USS Forrestal, the first American Aircraft carrier, launched on December 11, 1954. Named after the first ever secretary of defense, James Forrestal, it became known as the 'Zippo', because of a number of on board fires. In 1967, 134 sailors died and 161 more were injured during a fire that destroyed 21 aircraft.

Gary Meyer

Gary Meyer

Meyer became famous for painting aerial views of buildings and cityscapes, beginning with his award-winning album cover illustration for 'Chicago 13' in 1979 (the thirteenth album of the band 'Chicago'). Meyer says his aerial views are, in a sense, simply aviation art, except that the viewer is in the aircraft.

Gary Meyer

Below: A perfect example of three-point perspective in one of Gary Meyer's paintings. This illustration shows two Navy SH-3 Sea King helicopters above the 1986 Dupont Hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Gary Meyer

As Gary has done so much work for so many clients, chances are you've across some of his artwork without even knowing it. From left to right: iconic artwork for 'Jaws 3' (1983), sci-fi vehicles in 'Battle Beyond the stars' (1980), the Roger Corman remake of Akira Kurosawa's famous 'Seven Samurai', which featured special effects direction by James Cameron. Meyer's ability to render highly realistic aircombat lend itself perfectly for George Roy Hill's 'The Great Waldo Pepper' (1975) poster artwork (with Robert Redford).

Gary Meyer
Gary Meyer
Above: in 1983 Meyer was involved with the production of John Badham's movie 'Blue Thunder' starring Roy Scheider. The above image was commissioned by a toy manufacturer for packaging use. The famous helicopter was a modified version of the French SA342J Gazelle, a single-turbine, 200-mph light utility machine featuring the Fenestron shrouded tail rotor design. It was modified for the film with a moveable, six-barrel, 20mm minigun.

The Gnomon Workshop.


Alex Alvarez's Gnomon Workshop is mainly known for bringing high class instructional video's on the creation of 3D computer graphics and Visual effects for the games and movie industry. But they've also got quite an interesting library of instructional DVD's on the creation of traditional artwork, which tends to be more on the technical side, like industrial design. Below: Meyer teaching eager students the disciplines of traditional painting.

Gary Meyer
I highly recommend getting this set if you want to learn how to draw perspective or just want to learn more about the creation of art from a true master. If you're into technical drawing, you should definitely also check out Scott Robertson's DVD's at Gnomon about the creation of Spacecraft, airplanes and cars. I think Meyer's instructional video's are a great addition to their library and I for one, am grateful that they've made the effort to record his lectures. A real gem!
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