Perspective - Theory and Practice

Ive done some reasearch into perspective. I find it massively hard and to be honest Ive gained a very limited understanding of it.

Diminuation is a reduction in the size of objects.

The vanishing point is the point in the distance where stuff thats in perspective meets the horizon, or into a tunnel... or something.

Fore-shortening is the space between objects as they dissapear into the distance towards the vanishing point.

Convergence is the appearance of tapering as stuff dissapears from the point of observation.


Here are some rules:

1. Parallel lines appear to converge as they recede from the spectator

2. Equal distances appear to become fore-shortened as they recede from the edge.

3. Objects of similar size appear to diminish as they recede.

4. Tone and colour become grayer and more neutral as they fade into the background.

5. Diminuation of textue and pattern with distance.

I will have to apply some of those when I colour these pictures, but this is some rough practice using a classic telephone pole line as example.



A STATION POINT is the point from which you are looking in the image. Generally it is about 5ft above ground level. This has to be level with the vanishing point or it looks as if the the floor curves... this isnt a hard and fast rule but it worked for the street image below.



I'm getting through the book Perspective now.


I'm working in an A3 book so apologies for the images, I'm having to take photographs at home as I dont have an A3 Scanner. The above is an example of 2 point perspecting. The main issue Ive had so far is confusing myself with too many lines but providing I keep working big, it seems to be going ok.


The above is an example of single point perspective, this is easy but getting the two methods correct is important so that I can combine them properly.




The above is an image of 2 point and one point perspective combined.

1 Point perspective is used when the front plane of the object is parallel to the picture plane. The picture plane is the first line you draw (the bottom one of the three) and is at 90 degrees to the observation point. How far away it is is determined by the Cone of Vision, which is generally between 30 and 70 degrees depending and how wide the image is. The wider the cone, the further away the Picture Plane is.

The second 2 lines (the two down from the top) are the Horizon Line (on top) and this is where youre Vanishing points are, The vanishing points are where the Cone of Vision meets the Horizon Line. The second down is the Ground Line and this is where your objects begin to sit. The first planes are drawn on top of, or joining onto the Ground Line and are determined by lines that come from your Vanishing Points.

In one point perspective you have a single Vanishing Point which is tends to be somewhere in the middle of the image.

In 2 point perspective you have 2 vanishing points and these generally sit way off the edges of the image, this is why its important to use a canvas bigger than the image is intended to be.