Perspective and Space
Space: The element of art referring to the emptiness or area between, around, above, below, or within objects.
FOREGROUND - Part of the picture plane that appears closest to the viewer MIDDLE GROUND - Area in a picture between the foreground and background. BACKGROUND - Part of the picture plane that seems farthest from the viewer.
Photographs, drawings, and paintings are often more interesting when there is a sense of spatial depth. Sometimes this is very obvious. Sometimes, in non-representational art for example, it can be very subtle. The mind tries to make sense of the space and how it is activated in a work of art.
Perspective A method used to create the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface. There are two kinds of perspective: Atmospheric Linear
Atmospheric Perspective The effect of air and light on how an object is perceived by the viewer. The more air between the viewer and the object, the more the object seems to fade. A bright object seems closer to the viewer than a dull object.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau The Bohemian, 1890
Linear Perspective A technique of using lines in drawing and painting to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface.
1 point perspective Q: How do you start a one point perspective drawing? A: With a square.
A line that leads to the vanishing point is an Orthogonal. The Louvre I.M. Pei, 1989 Paris, France Q: In a one point perspective drawing, is the vanishing point always in the center of the drawing? A: No. Consider where it is in this photograph. We don t even see the square fronts of the buildings except the small structure in the background.
2 point perspective Q: How do you start a two point perspective drawing? A: With a vertical line. In this example the vertical lines represent the front edges of the buildings.
Glass House Phillip Johnson 1949 New Canaan, Connecticut
Dancing House Frank Ghery and Vlado Milunic 1996 Prague, Czech Republic
Falling Water Frank Lloyd Wright 1935 Bear Run, Pennsylvania
6 Methods of Showing Spatial Depth Size Placement Color Overlapping Converging Lines Detail
size
placement
color
overlapping
converging lines
detail
1 point perspective worm s eye view (looking up) bird s eye view (looking down)
Raphael, School of Athens, 1509-10 Is this one point or two point perspective?
Michel Doucet, Pleasure Boats at Argenteuil, 2006 Is this one point or two point perspective?
Pieter Bruegel, Hunters in the Snow, 1565 Is this one point or two point perspective?
Is this one point or two point perspective?
One and Two Point Perspective Exercises Download the worksheets from the class web site for all 11 of the perspective exercises. We will start These together in class. You will finish them on your own and turn them in. One Point Perspective: Boxes Two Point Perspective: Boxes One Point Perspective: Room Two Point Perspective: Dice One Point Perspective: Letters Two Point Perspective: Letter E One Point Perspective: Shapes Two Point Perspective: Letter M Two Point Perspective: Room Two Point Perspective: House Two Point Perspective: Buildings
One Point Perspective: Boxes On your first worksheet, draw a horizon line across the center of your drawing space. Add a vanishing point in the center.
One Point Perspective: Boxes
One Point Perspective: Boxes Use your ruler to add three boxes on the left side of your drawing space: One on top of the horizon line One in the top left corner One in the lower left corner Use your ruler to draw orthogonal lines from the corners of the boxes to the vanishing point.
One Point Perspective: Boxes Line your ruler up with the right edge of the three boxes, keeping it parallel with the edge of the boxes. Move the ruler to the right, keeping it straight up and down, and mark an edge on the side of your top box.
One Point Perspective: Boxes Line your ruler up with the bottom edge of the top box, keeping it parallel with the bottom edge of the box. Move the ruler down, keeping it straight from side to side, and mark an edge on the bottom side of your top box.
One Point Perspective: Boxes Repeat these steps for each of the boxes to create three different sized forms. Erase the orthogonal lines from your top box and you will see that you have created a three dimensional form floating above the horizon line. Note that if a form is above the horizon line, you see the bottom of the form. If it is below the horizon line, you see the top of the form. If it is directly on the horizon, you will only see the front and side.
One Point Perspective: Room On your second worksheet, draw diagonal lines, corner to corner across your drawing space to find the vanishing point in the center.
One Point Perspective: Room Use your ruler to create a box in the middle of the drawing space, keeping the sides parallel with the top, bottom and sides of the box that marks your drawing space. Draw in the orthogonal lines to the corners of the inside box and erase the lines which go all the way to the vanishing point.
One Point Perspective: Room Use your ruler to draw a vertical line on the left wall of your room that will define the closer side of a doorway. Draw an orthogonal line from the vanishing point to the top of your vertical line. Decide how wide you want your door to be, mark the top of the door and connect the far side of the door to the floor with another vertical line.
One Point Perspective: Room Repeat the same process to create a window on the right wall of your room. Draw parallel lines around the door and window to give them a frame. Add a door knob or other details as you like.
One Point Perspective: Room Add a set of evenly space dots to the lower edge of your back wall, along the floor line. Use a ruler to draw lines from the vanishing point in the center of of the picture through each of these dots, extending down to the lower edge of the picture. Erase the parts of the lines that extend onto the back wall.
One Point Perspective: Room Use your ruler to draw a line from the back corner of your room to the opposite front corner of your room and mark the intersection where it crosses each line on the floor. Keeping your ruler straight and parallel with the front horizontal line on your drawing, draw horizontal lines across the room from side to side at each of the intersecting points. You ll notice that the spacing changes as you move farther away from the front of the room. Erase the diagonal line when finished.
One Point and Two Point Perspective Work Sheets There are a total of eleven work sheets in the warm up assignment. If you finish them early, add design or texture to the drawings to make them more interesting. You will hand these in as a set. Take a couple of class periods to complete the set. This exercise will help prepare you for our next assignment.