Perspective Drawing Understanding Linear Perspective

Perspective Drawing

Understanding Linear Perspective

Objective

• Learn and understand how to create shapes using linear perspective.

• Supplies: Paper, ruler, pencil.

Early History

• Perspective perhaps first entered mainstream artistic use around the 5th century B.C. in ancient Greece in the subject of skenographia: using a flat panel on a stage to give the illusion of depth

• Euclid's Optics introduced a mathematical theory of perspective

Giotto Bondone

1267 – 1337

• The artist Giotto di Bondone attempted drawings in perspective using an algebraic method to determine the placement of distant lines.

• The problem with his method was that the ratio of distance between the lines was different from our perception of receding spaces. (different from sine)

Filippo Brunelleschi

Mathematical basis

• One hundred years later, in about 1415, Filippo Brunelleschi demonstrated the geometrical method of perspective, used today by artists, by painting the outlines of various Florentine buildings onto a mirror. When the building's outline was continued, he noticed that all of the lines converged on the horizon line.

Using Perspective

• Perspective helps to create a sense of depth -- of receding space. Fundamental techniques used to achieve perspective are: controlling variation between sizes of depicted subjects, overlapping some of them, and placing those that are on the depicted ground as lower when nearer and higher when deeper. In addition, there are three major types of perspective: aerial perspective, herringbone perspective, and linear perspective.

How it works

• we see parallel lines as converging in the distance, although in reality they do not. Stated another way, the lines of buildings and other objects in a picture are slanted inward making them appear to extend back into space. If lengthened these lines will meet at a point along an imaginary horizontal line representing the eye level. Each such imaginary line is called an orthogonal. The point at which such lines meet is called a vanishing point.

Da Vinci

History

• The invention of linear perspective dates to the early 1400s, with Filippo Brunelleschi's experiments in perspective painting and Leon Battista Alberti's treatise on perspective theory.

• Irregular applications of linear perspective have resulted in various optical illusions and anamorphosis.

One Point

Two Point

Three Point

Perspective Tips

• Use a Ruler

• Do a quick sketch to plan your idea

• Make your vanishing point outside of your image area (when making 2 &3 point perspective drawings)

• Always establish your horizon line before you draw your vanishing points.

Featured Artist

M.C. Escher

Artwork Using Multiple Perspectives

Maurits Cornelis Escher

• MC Escher (Maurits Cornelis), Dutch, 1898-1972, is a master of graphic arts and the optical illusion. His work also displays a kind of hyper-realism, where all parts of the picture are in tight focus, from close up to far away.

• Escher developed a unique series of drawings after visiting Alhambra, the 14th-century fortress and palace in Granada, Spain.

• This architectural gem is a huge insight into the famous drawings and prints that depict architectural believable but impossible spaces.

• There are archways that seem to lead up, yet lead back to where they started. There are beautiful reflecting pools that create the natural illusion of a mirror.

• It was the inspiration of Alhambra that started a series of artworks that Escher called the Regular Division of the Plane. In these masterful works, Escher creates memorable and stunning works of optical illusion. In this work entitled, Waterfall, try to follow the path of the water in the architecture of the building. The water falls down and then follows a man-made channel up, only to fall again, in a never-ending cycle of visual impossibility.

Why it’s Important

• While certain schools of art history may not teach Escher as a great artist, his popularity gives him enormous educational leverage to teach topics such as photo-realism, hyper realism, lithography, illustration, and surrealism.

Terms

• Follow along on your worksheets or in your work book.

Perspective

• The technique artists use to project an illusion of the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface.

Linear perspective

• A system of drawing or painting in which the artist attempts to create the illusion of spatial depth on a two-dimensional surface. It works by following consistent geometric rules for rendering objects as they appear to the human eye.

Vanishing point

• In linear perspective, the place on the horizon where parallel lines seem to meet.

Horizon line

• A level line where water or land seems to end and the sky begins. Vanishing points are usually located on this line. The image behind this text features a horizon line separating sky from sea -- which, as you look lower, morphs into sky again, etc. (Notice too, the way rows of waves are depicted as receeding toward vanishing points.)

Parallel

• Two or more straight lines or edges on the same plane that do not intersect. Parallel lines have the same direction.

Craftsmanship

• A person who practices a craft with great skill; The technique, style, and quality of working. Having a high degree of excellence. The quality of a thing tends to be increased the more care its maker puts into its making.