Getting back to my series of articles re-living the Palladian Odyssey tours in May this year… I want to share a little today about how perfect a Palladian villa is for learning perspective sketching.

Whenever I teach perspective I look for a simple building with a few basic volumes which is sitting on flat ground. It is surprisingly hard to find buildings that fit this bill and that also have a shaded area opposite, so that a group can sit there while sketching.

In the Palladian Odyssey tour we visit VIlla Emo which meets all the above requirements.

In addition there are two long side wings which are perfect for seeing the impact of foreshortening. The arches are also a fun challenge to sketch.

And if you are not feeling in the mood for a two-point perspective, you can sit straight-on instead and do a one-point!

In the second tour this year, I managed to have a few spare minutes to do this sketch in which showed the group how I use the principles without doing the setup.

In both tours I was blown away by the quality of the work done in a shorter than normal sketching session.

And I can’t wait to teach it for a second time in 2018!

There are only a few places left in both tours so please check out the website for more details.