Perspective Made Easy - A Step-By-Step Method for Learning the Basis of Drawing

STEP ONE

THE HORIZON

THE VANISHING POINT

THE EYE-LEVEL

PERSPECTIVE

The artist’s business is to be able to draw an object so that it will look solid and not flat like the surface of the paper on which it is drawn. In so doing the artist employs a method that we call perspective.

A brick drawn without the use of perspective.

This is called a plan.

A brick drawn with the use of perspective.

This is called a drawing in perspective.

Perspective is used not only to make the object appear to have dimensions but also to cause it to appear close up or in the distance or to suggest a feeling of space.

THE HORIZON

Let us follow the railroad tracks out on the plain where there is level land in all directions as far as we can see. All around us we can see the sky meeting the distant plain in a long even line. This is called the horizon.

The ideal example of the horizon is seen when viewed across a large body of water where no distant shore is seen. At sea the horizon is one continuous line.

We may consider the horizon as continuous. This is true though the view may be obstructed by an object: a hand, a building, or a mountain. The horizon is still there though we go into the building and close the door. If objects became transparent the horizon could always be seen. This is illustrated on the opposite page.

THE VANISHING POINT

Now we stand between the two shiny rails and look along the track. These rails go on and on across the level plain until they reach the horizon where they are lost from sight in the distance.

We call the place where they disappear the vanishing point.

Diagram showing that the horizon is continuous

THE EYE-LEVEL

Now look down at your feet. There you see the track. Raise your eyes and look fifty feet beyond. You still see the track although you are not looking directly down upon it.

Then look straight ahead. You see the track as it climbs to a height level with your eyes and disappears at the horizon in the distance. This height can be called the eye-level.

Here the horizon and the eye-level become one and the same thing.

THE HORIZON AND THE EYE-LEVEL

Now sit down on the track and look about. You will find that your eye-level has lowered. The distant horizon also appears lower in order to meet this change of eye-level.

If we ascend in an airplane we shall find that the distant horizon rises with our height. It appears to remain at eye-level.

This accounts for the peculiar basin-like appearance of the earth when viewed from a great height.

We can now understand why the drawing of the corner of a room looks different when sketched from a low stool as compared with one sketched from the top of a stepladder.

The height of the eyes becomes a very important factor in freehand drawing.

REMEMBER

We use perspective in drawing a brick so that it appears as a solid object.

The horizon is that distant line where the earth and the sky seem to meet.

The vanishing point is the place on the horizon where the rails of the tracks appear to meet.

The horizon is the height of your eyes no matter where you are above the ground.

The eye-level is the height of your eyes no matter where you are.

PROBLEMS

Draw a brick, a box, a book. Do you know just why you draw it as you do?

If you are in level country or near the ocean look for the horizon. Experiment by looking from different heights: from the ground, from a window, from the top of a building. Must you ever look up or down to see it?

Locate vanishing points in things other than railroad tracks.

Make a sketch from the center of a level street with the sidewalks representing the two rails of the track.

STEP TWO

THE EYE-LEVEL

AND ITS RELATIONSHIP

TO PERSPECTIVE DRAWING

THE EYE-LEVEL IS ALWAYS REPRESENTED BY A STRAIGHT LINE

You are seated sketching the interior of your room. Someone makes a mark around the wall the same height from the floor as your eyes. This mark will appear as a straight line across your drawing. It is the eye-level.

Notice in the drawing that the visible horizon seen through the window is the same height as the eye-level mark on the wall.

THE EYE-LEVEL IS LEVEL WITH THE EYE

The eye-level