The Art of Spiral Drawing

Learn to create spiral art and geometric drawings using pencil, pen, and more

Jonathan Stephen Harris

• Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781633228238
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

The Art of Spiral Drawing offers a fresh, modern take on everyone's favorite childhood toy from the 1960s through today, the Spirograph®. With The Art of Spiral Drawing, no complicated tools are needed, as artists of all skill levels learn to create their own spiral art using little more than paper and a pen or pencil. Written and illustrated by Jonathan Stephen Harris, the author of the popular The Art of Drawing Optical Illusions, the book opens with helpful sections on tools and materials, perspective, and shading, ensuring that beginning artists know the basics before getting started on the step-by-step projects that follow. Instructions for creating basic shapes, including a triangle, a circle, and a square, progress into more detailed patterns featuring perspective, florals, and more. Instructions are also included for creating a variety of subjects, from flowers to animals, all featuring a spiral pattern as their framework. Artists can even add color to their spiral artwork using the tips featured in the book and simple tools like colored pencils and markers. Beginning and intermediate artists, doodlers, optical illusionists, and more will love creating their own spiral and geometric art with the help of The Art of Spiral Drawing!

PERSPECTIVE BASICS

Optical illusions are a tricky thing. When viewing an optical illusion, your brain works slower than your eyes to trick you into seeing what’s not actually there—often through the use of perspective, color, light, and/or patterns.

In this book, we will explore an area of art that some might not consider an optical illusion; however, I feel that it does fall into this category. I call this technique “a spiral line drawing.” These drawings are not traditional three-dimensional art that jumps out at you, although that does happen in some instances. Rather, the lines merge to create movement and a finished product that looks more complicated than it is.

The process involves drawing straight lines that create curvature, giving the illusion that the lines are curved and/or that curved lines were drawn. The curved lines appear to spiral toward the center in what is sometimes referred to as a “logarithmic spiral.” Each curved line that reaches from one corner of the original shape (for example, a triangle) to the center of the sp...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Perspective Basics
• About the Artist
• Copyright