Drawing in Perspective

The first thing you need to know is that in perspective drawing, every set of parallel lines has its own vanishing point. Remember from math class that parallel means running side by side, the same distance apart. So the sides of a road or the sides of a door can both be thought of as pairs of parallel lines.

The lines moving away from us appear to get closer together the further away they are, and seem to meet at a Vanishing Point in the middle distance of the picture.

Notice that the back of the box, which you know is the same size as the front, looks narrower from this point of view. One set of lines stays parallel and the other set vanishes to a point. Now look at this real-life box…

First, draw a horizon line about one-third down your page. Use a small dot or line to mark a spot roughly in the middle of the line. That's your vanishing point. Let's draw a simple box using one-point perspective.

Now draw a few squares floating in various places on the page, but not too close the vanishing point. Draw one above the horizon line. Draw one right in the middle below the vanishing point. Draw one that crosses the horizon line.

Then close off your cubes by drawing the back line of the cubes (green line). Draw lines from the vanishing point to the closest corners of each square (red lines). Be sure to stay within the red lines leading to the vanishing point.

Notice that when the box is above the horizon, you can see the bottom, but not the top. When the box is below the horizon you can see the top but not the bottom. When the box crosses the horizon you can only see the front and one side.

This is what you’re going to do with what you just learned….

One Point Two-Point

Next time we’ll learn 2-Point Perspective.

Then maybe we’ll try 3-Point.

Or maybe even 4-Point….

But 6-Point, that’s up to you… and M.C. Escher…