Perspective Drawing

Introduction

In the Junior School CBC (KICD), Grade 8 Creative Arts develops drawing skills further. Perspective is a technique that makes a flat drawing look three-dimensional by showing depth and distance.

Key terms

• Horizon line: the line at the artist's eye level where sky meets land.
• Vanishing point (VP): the point on the horizon where receding parallel lines appear to meet.
• Orthogonal lines: guide lines running to the vanishing point.
• Foreground, middle ground, background: layers of a picture.

Depth clues

1. Objects get smaller with distance.
2. Overlapping shows which object is closer.
3. Faraway objects are paler and less detailed.
4. Lower objects on the page seem nearer.

One-point perspective: drawing a road

1. Draw a horizontal horizon line.
2. Mark a vanishing point on it.
3. From two points at the bottom of the page, draw lines to the VP; these are the road edges.
4. Add poles or trees that get smaller towards the VP.
5. Shade and colour.

Drawing a box in one-point perspective

1. Draw a front square.
2. Draw light lines from each corner to the VP.
3. Mark the back edge of the box along those lines, drawing a smaller parallel square.
4. Join the corners and erase guide lines.

Two-point perspective

Two vanishing points on the horizon are used for objects viewed from a corner, such as a house.

Worked example

A row of five electricity poles along a road: the nearest is tallest, and each next pole is shorter and closer to the vanishing point, with equal spacing shrinking in the distance.

Try it

• Draw a straight road leading to a vanishing point with three trees.
• Sketch your desk as a box in one-point perspective.
• Observe a corridor and describe how lines converge.