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If we look at the corner of a building, the sides of the building will appear to reduce in height as they recede from view. To record this on paper, we need to understand Two Point Perspective

Here we see how vertical lines receding from a corner grow shorter.  We can see how to draw this, using two vanishing points as in the sketch below

You can see the walls and windows of the corner shop follow the lines drawn to the two vanishing points, just the same as we would draw 2 vanishing points to produce a drawing of the cloister scene above right.

So how do we ensure that all the arches in that view are correctly spaced ?  They get closer and closer as they get shorter, but how do we determine the distances ?

The same way as we draw a receding fence

If our first upright is at A-B and we draw feint lines to our distant vanishing point to the left hand side, we can put in a diagonal  A-C.  That determines the position of the next upright.  Our next diagonal is exactly parallel to AC and that will give us the base of the next upright.

As the length of the vertical lines reduce, this will automatically reduce the distances at ground level, and Hey Presto !  We have our receding fence or our receding arches

So how do we draw a correct curve in perspective ?  Look at  the images to the left.

We have a circle at ‘a’ drawn with a box inside it and outside it and a cross in the middle.

If we wish to draw a circle or curve within a receding surface - as in the cloister arches above, we start with our outside box drawn from vanishing points (as at ‘b’ ).  By taking the half way points on each side, we can find a centre for the circle and by drawing our curves between the inside and outside boxes we can get an accurate line for an arch or the top of a cup or bowl

If we are drawing floor tiles, it does become a little trickier as the vanishing points may be well outside the picture frame.  Look at the image on the right.  We have distant vanishing points at ‘d’ and ‘e’, and you can see how simple ( ! ) it is to get our lines correct even if we are looking at the tiles cornerwise on.

This can only be a brief look at Perspective.

There are a host of resources covering the topic elsewhere on the web and in most basic books on drawing.  It is worth getting familiar with the techniques.

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

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 will be re-written later in 2012 and will then include a number of new and refreshed examples.

In the meantime, there are some very good explanations of Drawing Perspective on the Internet that are worth looking at.  YouTube is a great help in making things clear.   http://www.draw23.com/perspective   has some good explanations and a Youtube video

There are also good Video examples on YouTube at :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=felys-u4nfk      and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeOnOMZXkno&feature=fvwrel   

which has some nice music as well

And if you would like a very detailed explanation with one, two and three point perspective explained,  have a look at :

http://www.khulsey.com/perspective-drawing-basics.html

There are hundreds of Internet explanations but only a few that are high quality and easy to follow