Perspective Drawing

Perspective comes from the Latin words per meaning "through" and specter which means "to look." These are combined to mean "to look through" or "to look at."

Perspective Drawing is a technique used to represent three-dimensional images on a two-dimensional picture plane. But being three-dimensional means that an object has height and width, not just depth alone. Despite this, perspective became less about three-dimensional form than obsessing almost exclusively on that third dimension of depth. This is so much the case that it is commonly referred to as depth perspective.

"Perspective is to painting what the bridle is to the horse, the rudder to a ship…There are three aspects to perspective. The first has to do with how the size of objects seems to diminish according to distance: the second, the manner in which colors change the farther away they are from the eye; the third defines how objects ought to be finished less carefully the farther away they are." (Leonardo da Vinci)

Perspective was developed in the 15th century by the architects, Leon Baptista Alberti (1404-72) and Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446). For 500 years, perspective drawing remained one of the basic principles of Western art until it was challenged by the ideas of the Cubists at the start of the 20th century.

Whether you are working with conventional materials such as pencils and paints, or contemporary digital media, a knowledge and understanding of perspective drawing remains an essential tool to help you enhance your drawing technique.

There are two main elements in perspective drawing:

Û Linear Perspective which deals with the organization of shapes in space

Û Aerial Perspective which deals with the atmospheric effects on tones and colours.

Definition: Linear Perspective is the apparent diminishing of scale as the distance from object to viewer increases. Each set of horizontal lines has its own vanishing point. For simplicity, artists usually focus on correctly rendering one, two or three vanishing points. 

 In one-point perspective, the horizontals and verticals which run across the field of view remain parallel, as their vanishing points are at 'infinity', with horizontals which are perpendicular to the viewer vanish towards a point near the center of the image.

 
In two point perspective, the viewer is positioned such that objects (such as boxes or buildings) are viewed from one corner, so that two sets of horizontals diminish towards vanishing points at the outer edges of the picture plane, while only verticals remain perpendicular.

In three point perspective the viewer is looking up or down so that the verticals also converge on a vanishing point at the top or bottom of the image. 

Atmospheric perspective attempts to duplicate the visual effect of near objects being crisp and clear, while distant objects may be less distinct and muted.