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Still holding the pencil at arm’s length, and still with one eye closed and your elbow locked, measure from the top corner: “One (width), to one (height)” (Figure 8-14), then drop down, measure “One to two” (Figure 8-15), drop it again and measure the remainder, “One to two and two-thirds” (Figure 8-16). You have now “taken a sight” on the proportion of the width relative to the height of the doorway. This proportion is expressed as a ratio: 1:2, or, in words, “One to two and two-thirds.”

Fig. 8-13. Measure “One . . .”

Now, turn back to your sketch

By sighting the doorway, you determined that the width-to-height proportion of the doorway was 1:2. That is the proportion of the doorway “out there” in the real world. Your job is to transfer that proportion from “out there” into your drawing. Obviously, the door in your drawing will be smaller—much smaller—than the real doorway. But it must be proportionally the same, width to length.

Fig. 8-14. “. . . to one . . .”

Fig. 8-15. “. . . two . . .”

Fig. 8-16. “. . . and two-thirds.”

Fig. 8-17. Measure “One . . .”

Now, therefore, use your pencil and thumb to take a new measure: the width you have drawn on your paper (Figure 8-17). Then turn the pencil to vertical on your paper and measure off “One to one, two, and two-thirds” (Figures 8-18, 8-19, and 8-20). Make a mark and draw in the two sides of the doorway. The doorway you have just drawn has the same proportion—width to height—as the real doorway you were looking at.

To set this idea, draw a new “One,” smaller than the first one. Now, measure that width with your pencil and again mark off the proportional height. This doorway will be smaller, but it will be proportionally the same as your first drawing and the real doorway.

Summing up: In sighting proportions, you find out what the proportions are “out there” in the real world and then, holding the proportion in your mind as a ratio (your Basic Unit or “One”—in relation to something else), remeasure in the drawing to transfer the proportion to the drawing. Obviously, in drawings, sizes are almost always on a different scale (smaller or larger) than what we see “out there,” but the proportions are the same.

Fig. 8-18. “. . . to one . . .”

Fig. 8-19. “. . . two . . .”

Fig. 8-20. “. . . and two-thirds.”

As a clever student of mine put it: “You use your pencil to find the ratio ‘out there.’ You remember it, wipe the measure off the pencil, and remeasure with your pencil in the drawing.”

The next step: Sighting angles

Remember, sighting is a two-part skill. You have just learned the first part: sighting proportions. Your pencil, used as a sighting device, enables you to see “How big is this compared to that?” “How wide is that compared to my Basic Unit?” And so on. Proportions are sighted relative to each other and to your Basic Unit.

Sighting angles is different. Angles are sighted relative to vertical and horizontal. Remember, both angles and proportions must be sighted on the plane.

Take up your Viewfinder/Picture Plane and your felt-tip marker again and seat yourself in front of another corner of a room. Hold up the Picture Plane and look at the angle formed where the ceiling meets the two walls. Be sure to keep the Picture Plane vertical in front of your face, on the same plane as the plane of your two eyes. Don’t tilt the plane in any direction.

Again, compose your view, and use your marker on the Picture Plane to draw the corner (a vertical line). Then, on the plane, draw the edges where the ceiling meets the two walls, and, if possible, the edges where the floor meets the walls.

Then, put your Picture Plane down on a piece of paper so you can see the drawing and transfer those lines to a piece of drawing paper.

You have just drawn a corner in perspective. Now, let’s do that without the aid of the Picture Plane.

Move to a different corner or a different position. Tape a piece of paper to your drawing board. Now, take a sight on the vertical corner. Close one eye and hold your pencil perfectly vertically