22. Perspective Basics - 1 Point Perspective
Linear perspective is an artist's device first invented around 1413-15, by Filippo Brunelleschi, a famous architect from Renaissance Italy. A Florentine artist, he designed the dome for their cathedral. He also taught his pupils linear perspective, and it's eye-opening to see the difference it made in art.
Here is some art before linear perspective:
And after the discovery of linear perspective:
Linear perspective enhances the realism of a drawing. To me it's mind-blowing how difficult it was for artists to draw and paint correctly before Brunelleschi's invention. But, that's the thing, linear perspective is not intuitive. And, even after having seen the correct use of it, many students still fail to grasp its principles and create work that would be physically impossible in the real world.
In this lesson I will try to simplify the basics, starting with 1-point perspective, to show you how to find it and see it in the real world, and then how to draw it.
I was lucky as an artist because, as a young child, my father took it upon himself to teach me how to read, before kindergarten. And, among the many children's books I read, was Maurice Sendak's One Was Johnny, a Counting Book. And, in this book there were excellent illustrations that demonstrated the basics of one-point perspective - even though they were so simple, they didn't follow the rules!
It helped me understand that I could draw strange shapes like trapezoids and rhombuses that, when fit together would read as a rectangular table or door, or carpet, etc. I began applying these concepts to the rooms I was sitting in, and houses I would invent, and it bumped me up a level. By the time I got to high school, I was baffled why it took so long for artists to "learn" linear perspective - wasn't it obvious? Just look at the world around you, and observe the shapes!
So How Does Linear Perspective Work?
Strange as it sounds, it's based on the notion of drawing "sides" of an object that eventually meet, or converge, at a vanishing point. And these vanishing point can be anywhere. You get to choose!
What Makes Linear Perspective So Hard?
Well, first of all, many people don't like to draw the sides of objects. They want to describe forms from just one side, because it's easier. People love silhouettes. And sometimes that works, but you can't have everything be a silhouette or the picture looks flat.
Secondly, once you do choose a vanishing point, and a horizon line, then you've set up a system that you have to follow. If you don't know how to do that, you can end up forgetting really important concepts, resulting in wildly inaccurate drawings. I've had students that forgot that vertical walls of buildings need to be straight up and down - or the building falls over!
If I had simply asked this student to draw a building, I'm sure he'd make the vertical lines vertical, but by introducing 1-point perspective, he got completely confused. To prevent this, just ask yourself, how many buildings lean in real life? It's not too common, and it's a big deal when it happens:
Where is the horizon line?
Good question. There is always a horizon line, everywhere you look in real life. But, you can't always see it. Often times, the horizon line is sitting behind something that covers it. Look at the photo above. See all those buildings and trees and shrubs? The horizon line is hiding behind them. One of the easiest places to see the real horizon line in all its glory is at the beach. There, nothing blocks it.
In your drawings, you can choose to put the horizon line at the top, or the bottom, or in the middle of your page. You can slide it around, wherever you want to - you can even slant it if you want. That gives the effect of the viewers turning their heads at an angle. Usually, though, if you're looking straight, the horizon line is at your eye level - meaning it changes as you get taller. That's why, if you raise the horizon line, and make everything look tall and imposing, it can give the viewer the sense of being small, like being a child again, or from a dog or cat's eye view - or even a worm's eye view!
How Many Vanishing Points Are There In Real Life?
Six - based on your point of view, at any given time. In most drawings, we only focus on a few at a time. The more vanishing points you add to a drawing, the more complicated it gets. However, if the buildings and objects around you aren't situated in right angles to each other, or if they're on hills and slopes, this can further skew the perspective, even adding more vanishing points.
How Do You Find a Vanishing Point in Real Life?
It's tricky, because they keep moving as you turn and tilt your head. In a photo, you can find them by using a ruler to extend converging lines.
Can Linear Perspective Perfectly Describe the Real World?
Yes... but not by itself. Linear perspective lends itself to describing an ideal world, a world that sits on a perfectly flat ground, with everything in perfect right angles to each other. The real world isn't like that. Towns aren't like that. Nature isn't like that. People like right angles and rectangles, and so we try to impose it on nature, but we rarely do anything "perfectly".
Even so, you can often find traces of linear perspective in nature. Clouds indicate them, however roughly.
Rivers and streams indicate them.
Fields can indicate them:
Looking up at trees can indicate them:
Rays of light can indicate them.
It's rarely as clear and sharp as the side of a building, but it's there if you know how to look.
LEVEL 1 ASSIGNMENT - Maurice Sendak Room
THE SETUP: Paper and Pencil
In this exercise, I want you to invent a living room, with a table, chair, doors, carpet, etc. Don't worry about vanishing points of converging lines. Let's just focus on the concept that a collection of abstract, geometric shapes can connect to form the illusion of objects with two or more sides, seen simultaneously - that a trapezoid or a rhombus, or a diamond, can represent a square seen in space. Once you get that, you can start to intuit linear perspective without using a ruler or vanishing points.
After you try this assignment once or twice, you can try redrawing it with 1 point perspective, by adding the horizon line and a vanishing point.
Do not draw from a photo here. It's better to either see a real room, or just draw it from imagination. This lesson is not about copying a photo, it's more about constructing and building something from nothing - it will teach you better.
PRO TIP: Stan Prokopenko recommends drawing a kitchin, because there are many boxy items, like cabinets, ovens, microwaves, etc.
LEVEL 1 ASSIGNMENT - 1 Point Perspective Canyon
THE SETUP: Paper and Pencil
One of the challenges with linear perspective is learning how to use it freely, creatively, without feeling boxed stuck, like your drawing has to look a certain way. In this exercise, I want you to have total freedom. So, what you're going to do is...
Step 1: draw a bunch of abstract shapes. Make any shapes you want. Geometric, organic, doesn't matter, so long as they're enclosed shapes with no overlapping. Space them out however you want.
Step 2: Add a dot - literally wherever you want to. It does not matter where. This will be your vanishing point.
Step 3: Use a ruler to draw light (ghost) lines from the outer edges of each shape to your vanishing point.
Step 4: Decide how long you want these lines to be and draw parallel lines to cut off and define the "bottoms" of each shape.
The result should appear kind of like looking down into a canyon from an airplane. You can even add a little river running through it, if you want.
LEVEL 1 ASSIGNMENT - 1 Point Perspective Boxes
THE SETUP: Pencil and Paper.
Step 1: Draw a horizon line and add a vanishing point anywhere on that line - doesn't matter where.
Step 2. Draw a bunch of boxes, at right angles to the horizon line. Make sure your x & y axis are perfectly perpendicular. These boxes can be large or small, and should more or less fill the page - keep some distance between them.
Step 3. Draw your Z axis lines converging on the vanishing point. Be careful not to draw over other boxes - you can to keep the illusion of overlapping, with the front of each box being in front of the sides of the others.
LEVEL 1 ASSIGNMENT - 1 Point Perspective Lettering
THE SETUP: Download and print this image, and use a pencil to draw on it.
Step 1: This image has bubble letters and a horizon line. You can add a dot anywhere on the horizon line, it doesn't matter where, and use a ruler to connect that dot to the edges of every single letter.
Step 2: Draw a horizontal line for the backs of your letters - you can place this anywhere, but make sure it's parallel to the tops of your letters. Use a light, ghost line to start.
LEVEL 2 ASSIGNMENT - 1 Point Perspective Hallway
LEVEL 2 ASSIGNMENT - Drawing Blocks
LEVEL 3 ASSIGNMENT
Comments
Post a Comment