Puting things in perspective: The 3 points of perspective

Now for many of us who have heard of the movement “The Renaissance” we have also heard about the technique Perspective and it’s a crucial part of what made the buildings in renaissance art look three dimensional.

Now it’s still part of art, whether you’re taking a drawling class or drawling comics, learning perspective is a great tool for getting rid of the flatness in your work. I will be going over the basic techniques involved in creating a perspective 1,2 and 3-point perspective. 

(Now two things you need for the line work for perspective is a ruler and a piece of paper)

 

The Two Basics
Now for perspective, we’ll start by breaking it down to its two primary parts.

First we need a Horizon Line. This line is meant to draw out where the horizon in our piece. When an object is placed above it we can see under it but not over it, when placed under we can see above but not below our object and when placed in the middle you can see the only the front of object (and maybe one of the sides).

Then we need a Vanishing Point, this will show our main focus in the piece. This is where an object will draw back to when we start. Now your point doesn’t need to be in the center of the piece but needs to be on the Horizon Line. As a side note, when we go to 2-point and 3-point perspective there will be more Vanishing Points added.

Try it yourself: 1-point perspective
To start off 1-point perspective we need to make a Horizon Line down the I middle of the page (holding the paper horizontally) 

Step 1

Next we add our Vanishing Point on our Horizon Line and we are ready for the fun part.

Step 2

We are going to add our objects. Start by making squares in the middle, off to the sides, above and below the Horizon Line. We’ll call these flat parts of your squares, Faces from now on. 

Step 3

Now go and take your ruler and corner of each Face and follow it back to the Vanishing Point. This adds depth to you Faces turning them into a seemingly 3D object.

Step 4

After you adding depth you can add lines on the sides and top to show the effect of depth.

Step 5

 

Step 6

And you have a 1-point perspective piece.

1-point perspective

Try it yourself: 2-point perspective
Now as mentioned earlier, the “2-point” in this perspective adds two Vanishing Points and unlike the 1-point perspective we will use lines vertical as our object that we call Edges.

Now the Horizon Line can be set up as it was in the last part but try to space out the two Vanishing Points so that the depth applied to the Edges won’t appear distorted.

Step 1

Now add your first Edge below or above the Horizon Line and connect the tips of each Edge to each Vanishing Point.

Step 2

Step 3

Next along the 4 of the lines you created going back to the Vanishing Points make another Edge on each side of the first one.

Step 4

Finally take 2 Edges and connect each Edge to the Vanishing Point on the opposite side.

Step 5

Step 6

And you have box in 2-point perspective.

2-point perspective

Try it yourself: 3-point perspective
Now finally we have 3-point perspective.

The setup for this one is similar to 2-point with the Horizon Line and two Vanishing Points on it but now we add a third Vanishing Point that isn’t on the Horizon Line.

Step 1

This third Vanishing Point is either placed on the top or bottom of the Horizon Line.

Step 2

The object for 3-point perspective starts off as a Point itself and can be placed anywhere above or below the Horizon Line. Then like the others we make lines to connect to the Point to the 3 Vanishing Points.

Step 3

Then make 3 Points on the lines and draw them back to the each of Vanishing Points. 

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Then finally you will see you 3-point cube.

3-point perspective

Now go practice these skills and then you can [Share Your Stuff]