Secondary Now You Try Creating your own realistic drawing. Masters of Illusion: Unveiling the Mystery of Trompe L’Oeil Tempe Center for the Arts Lessons by Mary Erickson, Ph.D. with art teacher Hillary Andrelchik

shaded side shadow light source is on the right side of the apple highlight lit area You have already learned a few things about the tricks artists use to fool their viewers.

You’ve also learned how to apply those tricks to create an illusion of three dimensions in your own drawing.

Here are some ultra-realistic, or trompe l’oeil, works by local artists from the Masters of Illusion exhibition at the Tempe Center for the Arts.

Donald Clapper, Scottsdale “War and Peace,” 16”x20” oil

Anna Youngers, Sioux Falls, S.D. “Momentos,” oil

Larry Charles, Peoria “Goddess of Love,” 16”x20” oil

Now it is your turn to create an ultra-realistic drawing.

To begin, you will need to choose some items to draw, or the subject matter of your drawing. The easiest way to start will be to use flat items, such as postcards, envelopes or playing cards. Let’s look at some colored pencil examples drawn by Tanya Kohlenberg’s AP art class at Highland High School in Gilbert.

Liz Can you identify some different subject matter these students chose? Brenna

What flat subject matter did these students chose ? Cassie Sarah

The students who made these drawings chose some subject matter that is not flat. Can you find these items? Austin Lukas

Next, you need to think about the composition, or how the subject matter is arranged. Start by looking at some examples of different types of compositions using apples and other fruit.

You could arrange the objects in a single row, as in this photo of apples. However, this arrangement does not create much visual interest.

Instead, try arranging similar objects in a variety of ways.

Another way to make the composition interesting is to use different types of subject matter. This will create variety and make the composition more interesting.

You also can arrange the items in different positions.

Or, you can look at your arrangement from different angles.

After you have tried several compositions, choose one that looks the most visually interesting to you.

Now, let’s look at a several compositions that use flat items as their subject matter. The items in this composition are arranged evenly next to each other. This arrangement does not make for a very interesting composition.

Try making some items overlap others to create interest.

Here is another composition with the same subject matter arranged in another way.

Change the way you overlap your items in order to show different parts of each item.

Create shadows, shaded and lit areas by bending up the corners of some of the items in your composition.

Finally, choose a composition that you find the most visually interesting.

After you have chosen an interesting composition, you need to think about how to use your artistic tricks. Let’s look more closely at the work done by Tanya Kohlenberg’s students at Highland High School, to see how they used those tricks.

In order to make this postcard look as if it is on top of the green background, Cassie folded up one of the corners to create a shadow.

Brenna also folded up the corner of a booklet to create a shadow.

Liz used a variety of values to her work in order to make it look more realistic.

Jackie and Kaitlyn added shadows and shaded areas with middle values in order to make their subject matter look wrinkled and crumpled.

Rebecca and Ryley added highlights to the shiny objects in their compositions.

Sarah created a shaded area on the envelope.

Liz and Brenna added areas of high contrast.

Kayla and Jennifer added a few non-flat items to their compositions to add interest.

Now it’s your turn. Think of all the tricks you have learned and practiced to create your own composition using flat items as the subject matter. You may want to try using colored pencil after you have developed your skills. Begin by creating an ultra-realistic drawing using only your pencil to create different values ranging from white to black.