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Perspective and the Illusion of Depth

Whilst most of the information on this site is not illustrated, it is almost impossible to cover this topic - even briefly - without some form of illustration.  Before we get tangled up in grid lines and squares and circles, let me explain the reason why we need to have an understanding of perspective.

 

If you produce a picture which shows all  of the subject as if you were simply looking at a flat picture on a wall, or even a piece of wallpaper, with all of the planes of the picture running from left to right across the page, the subject will be 1/ very boring  and 2/ have no feeling of depth.  It is necessary to interest the viewer by taking them into the scene, making their eyes ‘step over’ the ledge formed by the frame and the mount and take a ‘walk’ around your composition.  We will talk about the elements of composition elsewhere, but here we are concerned that any of the planes of the picture you show contribute to taking your viewer on their ‘tour’.

 

The first picture (below) is a scene of the harbour at Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus.  The harbour buildings are ranged out in front of us from left to right.  There is a separation between the buildings on the harbour front and the pale blue of the mountains in the background - what is known as Aerial perspective. The more distant parts of the scene are paler and more blue, and the nearer building are more detailed and include more reds and yellows - the warmer colours that get lost as we move further away from a scene.  

The overall effect of the picture is of a wall holding us back from entering.

 

The second picture is of the West Shore at Pittenweem in Eastern Scotland.  Here the footpath along the shore takes us into the picture to explore the walkway and look at the cottages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GETTING PERSPECTIVE RIGHT

You usually only notice perspective when you get it wrong.  A picture niggles you because there is something about it that isn’t ‘right’.  Some people see lines of perspective naturally - they just draw and paint things ‘as they see them’.  Other folk have to be shown what it is all about, and unfortunately that involves drawing lines - usually with a ruler - all over the picture.

 

In the far distance of every open scene is the horizon where you can no longer see detail and things look really tiny.  I use the phrase ‘open scene’ because some images have a lot of detail in the middle distance which blocks the far distant view.  At that point we cease to see things - they vanish.  We have a ‘Vanishing Point’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a host of more detailed information available in books

and on more technical art websites,

my aim here is to alert you to the principles.

On the next page we will look at Two Point Perspective,

A  method for drawing receding fences and floor tiles, and a look at how circles (such as the tops

of drinking glasses and similar items ) can be drawn in perspective

We get a real illusion of depth in the second image, which is gained from the lines of perspective in the cottages

Notice how the cottages in the second picture appear to become smaller as they are further away, we get a real sense of distance from the comparison of the post close to us (which is probably 6 feet high), but which appears ten times as high as the cottage at the far end of the row.

In this open coastal scene ( Brittany) there is a horizon and that is where any Vanishing pint will lie

In this English Country House scene, the Vanishing Point is on the left side but out of picture.  All the sight lines merge towards that point

In this Italian street scene, there are two vanishing points, one for each building, as the opposite sides of the street are not exactly parallel.

ART POINTS

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GENERAL ART POINTS

THE LIST OF SUB SECTIONS TO ART POINTS IS TOO LONG TO INCLUDE SEPARATE LINKS IN THIS SMALL PANEL.

PLEASE REFER TO THE DROP DOWN LIST IN THE NAVIGATION PANEL ABOVE - LISTED UNDER ‘ART POINTS’

THIS SECTION on ‘Perspective’ will be extended and laid out afresh later in 2012

The whole topic needs more examples and a clearer set of explanations.

In the meantime please read BOTH pages here