A ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE PROJECT

One point perspective is a drawing technique whereby the objects are drawn according to a set of rules that make the pictures look like they have depth in them and the solid forms appear to be three dimensional.

Notice the bases of the columns on the left side of the picture show us their right sides. The opposite is true of the columns on the right. The columns in the front are much larger than those farther away, yet we assume that in the real architecture, they must surely be the same height.

This Renaissance drawing by Jan Vredeman de Vries shows the use of 1-point perspective. Notice how the lines that connect the tops of the columns and the lines in the floor point to a single spot in the distant arch. That spot is called a vanishing point. It is at that spot that everything disappears. It represents an infinite distance away.

This realistic depiction of space is familiar to us because we can find examples of perspective drawing in many places.

Here is a picture from a video game. Just look in many video game backgrounds, magazines, and books, and you will probably see the work of artists who understand how to show realistic space by using perspective drawing techniques.

First, a few terms before we begin.

The HORIZON LINE is the viewer’s eye level in the picture. It is marked in blue in this picture.

The CONVERGING LINES are those that project the sides of an object back into space. They always come together (converge) at the vanishing point. A few are drawn in green. The VANISHING POINT is always on the horizon line. It is where all things appear to disappear. It represents an infinite distance away. It’s the red dot in the center.

And now the project...

Start by opening a paint document (such as ClarisWorks). Then, using the tools available, draw four shapes that are placed toward the four corners of the page. Add a vanishing point in the center.

	Now add the converging lines from the corners or edges of the shapes to the vanishing point. Be careful! Don’t draw lines across the front of shapes. Notice how the oval is done. The lines are added to outermost sides of the shape toward the vanishing point. The zigzag shape in the lower left is an interesting one, too.
There are converging lines from the inside points of the zigzag as well as the outer points. Why are no lines drawn from the points on the lower sides of the shape...where the green arrows point? Note: if your shapes are drawn in even slightly different positions than these, you must follow the rules until you develop an “eye” for how the shapes should look in 3-D.

When all of your first shapes have been done correctly, add more shapes. They may be put farther away from the vanishing point, or they may be closer, overlapping the first converging lines.
	The triangle, circle and ‘L’ have been added and the new converging lines are yellow. There is still some work left to finish this picture, though. Look carefully. Where the circle and triangle overlap the first shapes, the eraser tool must be used to erase out the first converging lines.

Be sure to magnify the screen for easy line removal. This is a close up of the eraser erasing lines with high magnification. If you can’t get the eraser into narrow spots, go to higher magnification or use the pencil tool to white out one pixel at a time.

Try filling the front of each shape and slanted sides to increase the sense of depth and space. Keep the front sides bright and make the colors get darker as they go back. Here the spaces between the converging lines have been filled with gradients of gray. If you know how to adjust the gradients you can get even better results than this.