Drawing any object in perspective. What do you need to know? Landscape with linear and aerial perspective

What will you create

Perspective. This word makes the blood of everyone who aspires to be an artist (and even many artists who seem to be quite good at what they do) freeze in their veins. This "method of drawing 3D shapes in 2D space" is full of intricate mathematical rules that seem to have nothing to do with the carefree and at the same time filled with passion drawing. Even if you managed to understand these rules, you may still be wondering how they apply to the real world. When you look around, do you see a perspective with one or two vanishing points? If the horizon is always at eye level, what happens if you look down? What is a vanishing point, really? And can you forget about perspective if you don't draw anything related to architecture?

In this article, I will not explain all the rules for modifying an object from a linear perspective. There are many tutorials about this, and if you want, you can find them yourself. Instead, I will explain to you where these rules come from and why someone had to invent them. Rules, after all, are just one way of describing the amazing phenomenon that has existed in nature since the day our brains began processing signals from our eyes. After reading this article, you will never be the same again!

Perspective…And What?

Forget math and geometry. Look back and remember those days when you traveled and watched houses and objects move with you. Objects closest to you moved the fastest, and objects farther away hardly changed their location. And the most distant of them, the moon, did not move at all - it was, and still is, and always will be no matter where you go.

But, of course, it was foolish to think that objects were actually moving when you were moving. It was just an illusion, similar to the fact that, for example, your monitor or table appears distorted when viewed from the side. Of course, it's a rectangle, so it's just an illusion. We are so used to seeing these illusions that we no longer pay attention to them, and if a child asks why the buildings are moving, or why the table is so distorted, perhaps at first we will not even understand what he is talking about.

We tend to view 2 as true shape, while 1 and 3 are only illusions created by perspective

"Illusion" is the word we use to explain things that our brains make us believe when they are not actually real. The table looks distorted. The building looks like it's moving. The problem is that everything about seeing is an illusion! Color, position, length, width, height, rotation, and even texture are not really what we see them. The image in our head is only an interpretation of reality - an interpretation inextricably linked with us.

Size

How much big this object? Can you tell?

Let's add something to this scene. now this small square, right?

Or...maybe it's huge.

Size does not exist by itself, but only in relation to something. Nothing is big or small on its own - you need to compare it to something to determine the size. Usually, we use the "standard" size of something as a source of information (a big apple is an apple that is larger than almost all apples you've ever seen).

Location

But Where our square? Is he far or near?

Now it looks far...

But it can also be close.

Is he high?

Or maybe low?

Object is not found nowhere as long as you haven't set a reference point. You need to establish a relationship between X And at to tell where is X. Unintuitive? Continue reading. I will explain all this later.

Movement

Is this square moving? Looks like it doesn't, right?

Wait... did it seem to me?

But… what is actually moving here? Pink square, or ghost on background? We will never know! And even if in the first picture White background moving all the time, you wouldn't notice the movement until something changed in the picture.

You can determine if something is moving by comparing it to another object that is not moving.. Changing the distance between them is how you measure speed. Formerly people believed that the sun revolves around the earth, but now we think the opposite. The truth is that both the first and second statements are not true - or they are both true.

What is the Truth?

All of these examples have one common feature: for them to exist, there must be a relationship. Perspective is just a name for the relationship between the observer and other objects.. See? No math.

You might be thinking, “But objects are just are somewhere, they're not waiting for us to tell them they're there!" It may not sound intuitive, but there are many expressions people have made up about us:

• If to me you need to move significantly to reach the object, it is far away.
• If my hands get tired quickly when holding this object, it is heavy.
• If I can barely feel the object in your hand, it is lightweight.
• If it stings when I I touch it, the object is hot.

They can be easily translated into simple pseudo-code:

If (distance(my.position,x)) > 100*my.steps then x=far; else x=close; If (weight(x)) > my.strength then x=heavy; else x=light; If (temperature(x)) > my.temperature else if (temperature(x)) == my.temperature If (size(x)) > my.remembered_size_of_x else if (size(x)) == my.remembered_size_of_x

Translator's note: Briefly, x in this code is the object in question; in each piece of code, a certain condition is also considered, similar / identical to the condition above, and based on a comparison with a given weight, size, temperature, etc. a decision is made about the characteristics of the object x.

Depending on which "I" you use, the real result will be different. For most people, it will be the same, but you can be a strong man and call a refrigerator "light" - and you won't be wrong! What we call "truth" is a set of qualities that most people would agree with. The refrigerator is heavy because most people would find it difficult to lift it - not because it is heavy in itself.

What is interesting is that the expressions "far", "close", "small", "heavy", "light", etc., change their meaning all the time, depending on the variables. The remote control is far away from you when you need to get up to change the channel (say 3 meters), but at the same time, the restaurant on the next street (300 meters) is close to you.

It may seem like a philosophy to you, something conceptual, one of many ways to describe reality. The fact is that all these things - size, location, distance, movement - are nothing but a concept. Imagine that you are some kind of god, and suddenly you can see the world without it at all! In fact, you can't imagine it - when you try it, you will most likely "fly, separated from the body", but still existing and watching everything with one point. We ourselves are our reference points, and it is impossible, at least for a mentally healthy, sober person, to imagine the universe without a reference point. Moreover, “feel”, “touch”, “observe” and other expressions like these imply the object being viewed and the one who is viewing. There is no way we can feel objects without using ourselves as a reference - as long as we are human, we cannot know what anything really is. Mathematics can bring us as close as possible to the essence, but the more precise it becomes, the less people able to understand it.

Every Feeling Has Its Perspective

More precisely, perspective is the relationship between a particular sense specific person and subject. Each feeling can have a different perspective. This is where illusions come from - if the image obtained by using one sense does not match the others (or our knowledge of it), we say that this is not true. You can test this by closing your eyes in a small room with white walls. Stretch out your hands and you will be surprised how tiny she has become!

We use vision as the most important feeling, so we tend to imagine that reality is exactly as we see it. The world of darkness, when our eyes are closed, is another world that we prefer to call incomplete. The fact is that what we see is also defective - our eyes and brain process only a small part of all existing visual signals. We live in a reality that exists only for us, and is similar - but not necessarily identical - for all people. We don't know what the world looks like. It plays right in front of your eyes with every movement of your head.. Therefore, the objects around you change their shape when you move - this is not an illusion, they really change. Shapes and shapes exist only in your head, as an interpretation of certain information processed by your brain. There is no "true" form, the one that Not created by your brain. All of them - straight and distorted - are the same. Call them all illusions, or true forms.

We all get the same information from an object, but it's how it's processed that creates the image in our head.

So what does all this have to do with art? And where is the perspective, that perspective, with perfectly straight lines and vanishing points in all this?

Perspective Creates an Image

I hope I haven't bored you too much with my long explanations, for I think this is absolutely necessary in order to really understand the things that I will talk about next. As an artist, you will create an optical illusion - you will use lines and special pigments to make people believe that they are looking at something that they saw in reality. To create this illusion, one must take into account absolutely all visual mechanisms known to us. You can't draw a plate of apples, because, as we found out, we have no idea what it is. You are drawing seen you a plate of apples - a plate seen by someone's eyes.

This is where it all starts. When you draw from a photo, or even from reality, you are simply copying the image that you see in your head. That's why it's relatively easy to achieve amazing results in this case - you just need good technical skills and hand-eye coordination; both the first and second are easy to learn.

Most people view this process as "copying reality". Again, it's impossible to create a copy of the plate of apples with the brush (A). You are only able to create a visual copy (3) of the image in your head (2) that appears when you look at a plate of apples (1).

We are approaching the real meaning of perspective. The position of the observer, the distance between his eyes and the object, the state of his vision - all this creates the image he sees. Two important conclusions follow from this:

• The image of an object is an interpretation of the human brain.
• The same brain will create countless various images the same object when the position of the eyes changes.

And now, to the point. When you look at a painting, you see an object that is not depicted in it.(A) - you see the image that your brain would create if you looked at the object from one clear position, angle, in a certain light and state of consciousness (B).

If you are confused, take a look at the illustration below. When you look at a painting, you imagine yourself as an observer. In your head, you recreate the conditions and conditions, and then you can imagine the subject as a whole.

The set of observer parameters (position, angle and visual range, etc.) in relation to the environment is the perspective value that we use as artists.

How Does Perspective Affect How an Object Looks?

Still quite confusing, isn't it? Let's learn a little more about depth.

How is it possible to see a 3D image in a 2D picture? Just like you can see depth with just one eye! In fact, binocular vision is most useful in a very small range - you can use it to thread a needle or do other precision exercises. In other cases, such as the definition of "close" and "far", we use our observations from the past. We know how big an apple is when we hold it in our hand, so if it looks much smaller than in the first case, it must be far away. For complete picture we use eye accommodation, comparison, light and shadow.

The observer has only one eye, until we have simple and affordable technologies for drawing 3D pictures. But it doesn't really matter! When you see a 3D model on your screen, it's 2D. The illusion of depth is created when you start to rotate it. The same trick is used when you have one eye - you move your head to change the perspective and suddenly there is depth. Why? Because at 2 Dimages there is only one perspective. If you can easily switch between at least two of them in some common dimension, it becomes three dimensional to your mind (http://www.moillusions.com/wp-content/uploads/i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb234 /vurdlak8/illusions/89f54b0040.gif). This is because a 2D scene/object can only move up/down, left/right, or diagonally. When it moves in any other direction - towards you or away from you - a third dimension is added. This is the third dimension depth.

But why do some drawings look like they are three-dimensional when they only have one perspective? This is because some perspectives imply having others prospects. You look at them and it's easy enough for your brain to imagine what would happen if the observer moved. The other images don't give any clue about the additional perspectives, so we can't represent them correctly. If you've ever wondered why it's so easy to draw one side of a character, and so hard to make it more dynamic, then here's the answer:

There are perspectives that convey only two dimensions. Let's call them 2D perspectives. Since a sheet of paper is also two-dimensional (at least from our point of view ...), it is quite easy to convey two dimensions on it. However, you cannot outsmart the third dimension and expect it to be easy to read! Drawing a 2D perspective inevitably leads to a flat image - to something that perhaps has a third dimension, but we know nothing about it and assume that the image of it does not have.

A- all images convey only two dimensions, ignoring the third. Therefore, each of them looks flat; IN- the image conveys all three dimensions, and therefore looks three-dimensional

2D perspective, as I call it, is known in drafting as orthogonal projections. By drawing at least two sides of an object, we can determine how it will look in 3D. However, none of the projections is the default perspective, because the default perspective just doesn't exist. Again, as humans, we don't have a sense that would allow us to process an entire object. For us, every object is made up of endless perspectives - and we can only see one at a time.

None of these perspectives is the default or true perspective. No, not even this "square".

So here's the problem: you can't draw anything without any perspective. It would be akin to trying to draw an object that cannot see nobody! Therefore, every time you draw something, you are conveying some perspective - whether you know you do it or not. Unfortunately, when you try to teach something about perspective, you end up with a technical approach with a bunch of weird, rigid rules. This is how you draw the horizon, here is the vanishing point, one, the other, the third, the right angles, the walls, the repeating shapes, the order... You look at them, you teach them, but you don't see anything to do with what you draw for fun. In the end, you decide that all these rules have nothing to do with your hobby, and you ignore them.

And I went through it. But let's say it again: an image is created when it is seen. When you see something, perspective is created automatically. Therefore, the perspective sewn in everything you draw. You can teach it or not teach it, but you cannot avoid it.

Don't hang your nose! Luckily, learning perspective isn't hard. After all, you've been doing it intuitively for years! You just need to systematize your knowledge, and then you will no longer need to guess. Perspective will work for you!

This is the effect of taking one particular perspective as the "true form" of an object.

How Does Perspective Work?

Finally, the part you've been waiting for! We have already seen that perspective is a vital part of every drawing, and not just technical ones. But where does it come from? How is unit perspective created? How and when does a 2D perspective turn into 3D? And why do 3D objects look distorted in a 2D image?

Discover your creation - something you may never have thought about before. It won't be intuitive, because all your life you've been using Euclidean geometry, and as we'll soon learn, vision doesn't work that way at all. It's not easy to jump from one way of thinking to another after all these years, but it's definitely worth it!

Three dimensions

Let's start by explaining the three dimensions. You may know that 2D is flat and 3D is... well, 3D, but how does that work? What is the difference between two and three dimensional objects?

Let's start with a perhaps shocking fact - objects aren't really 2D, 3D or 5D - they're just loaded into dimensions and are perceived by us as a whole image made of parts from each dimension. So a cube can be a square, a square can be a line, and a line can be a point. We call an object three-dimensional if it exists in the third dimension as something larger than a point.

Two dimensions

It doesn't matter what we call dimensions. What is important is that there are three of them. Let's start with two.

This is a 2D sheet, right? We know this for sure. It has a length and a width, and that's all we need to draw something flat.

Not really. Two individual dimensions give us nothing as long as they are separate. A line has full length in two dimensions only when it is parallel to them. Other times it's shorter, and when it's perpendicular, it becomes a point! Not to mention that the lines lying in a perpendicular row become one.

In terms of individual measurements, all these lines are completely different.

To create a real 2D space, we need to add a second dimension to every point in the first dimension...

…and the first measurement to each point of the second measurement.

It may look confusing, but we have created a space that share two dimensions. Now, regardless of where will he go line, it will be fixed by both measurements. We can determine the length of a line even if it is not parallel to any of the dimensions!

For example, when a line is not parallel to any of the dimensions, the final image is created by combining pieces of information from each dimension it crosses.

Mystical Third Dimension

In 2D space, we can move left, right, up, down, and everywhere in between. However, there are no such concepts as “forward” and “backward”, there is no “close” and “far”. Distance will be our third dimension - when you move one 2D leaf under or over another, depth is created.

To create a 2D space, for each point in one space, we added another. It's the same with 3D space - for each point in the third dimension, we need to add a piece of 2D space.

However, both the sheet and your screen are both 2D. We cannot imagine the third dimension here! The illustration below is just a concept, not a reflection of reality.

If we want to draw a line exactly as it looks in one dimension, no problem. The same with two dimensions. But that's it - we can only draw two dimensions at a time on a 2D sheet. When we want to add a third one, it will shrink into 2D space - the lines will be distorted, just like when we wanted to draw a 2D line in one dimension.

We can only depict two undistorted dimensions in 2D space

It is also important to note that there is no specific side of the object that is the "third dimension". Now that you can easily switch between two dimensions with a simple rotation, the front can become the back and the top can become the bottom. All dimensions mark an object, but it is not part of them.

Fun fact - we could add more dimensions - one 3D space for each point fourth dimension and so on. It's very simple in mathematics, but we humans only perceive three dimensions, and it's almost impossible to imagine any other. This is good for us - in drawing, three dimensions are quite difficult to understand!

Human Field of View (FOV)

Unfortunately, of all the animal world, our eyes are not the most in the best way; in fact, even bad enough. Although the field of view of both eyes is approximately 120 degrees, only in zone 1 do we see sharp details and colors. In zone 2, all that's left of it is colors and blurry shapes, and zone 3 is used mostly just to see movement. However, our brain fills in these gaps, and it seems to us that the image in our head is as good as a photo - with bright, crisp details in any part of it. He also reassures us that there is no blurry double nose right in the center of our field of vision.

The cone of our field of view is formed by an infinite number of 2D (horizontal and vertical) planes placed along a line (distance - depth) between the eye and infinity. For convenience, we will refer to 2D planes as 2D framework. The second cone is how we usually think of this field of view, but in reality it looks more like the field of view of a camera than a person.

The illustration clearly shows how the third dimension links others

The first cone is what we actually see. The second is what we think we see

That's right - there are no "angles" of view. We look around, not along vertical and horizontal lines.

Then why a rectangle? Perhaps because it is a regular figure that is easy to recreate as a canvas or information array. It has nothing to do with our vision, just a rectangle - a much more practical shape to use.

I present to you a symbolic interpretation of the PP in the simplest configuration (only one eye is used, we do not need more).

1. Glasses; I used them to show where your eye is.
2. Nose: It's always there, but your brain tells you it's not.
3. Sky: Everything in this area is above your head.
4. This is your growth area.
5. Ground: Place objects here so they are stable.
6. Dungeon: If there is a hole in the ground, or water instead of ground, you can put that space to good use.
7. The edge of your upper eyelid.
8. The edge of your lower eyelid.
9. A certain distance between the eye and the ground.

It is important to remember where the ground level is. If you are using a human as an observer, imagine another person having a dialogue with the observer directly in front of him, with a face covering most framework. Where would they stand? That is where the land should be.

You don't need to use all the software for your painting. You can crop it however you like, rotate the horizon to create a sense of lost balance, and place the center of the image away from the middle. Experiment!

Scale

most feature perspectives - objects that get smaller with distance - can be easily explained using a cone of view.

While the cone expands with increasing distance, the size of each frame for our brain does not change. When you look at something very close to you, you don't notice that your field of vision has suddenly decreased - you only see that the object has increased in relation to it. As the distance changes, the objects don't change, they are simply placed on different frames. The larger the frame, the smaller the object appears in relation to it. Therefore, you can cover the whole world with your palm - at a certain point, it really may well cover the rest of the cone.

Three lines of this size can fit on frame A, while frame B can fit five such objects. A and B are the same length. In order for the five lines to fit on frame B, they must look smaller than on frame A.

The scale also has to do with the perceived speed of objects. The farther the object, the longer the perceived path between the two sides. Just compare the length of three cars in a row and a dozen large buildings - they both fit in lines with the same length.

This also explains why the back of the cube seems to be moving at a different speed than the front - they are on different frames!

The lines in picture B take longer to get to the edge of our vision.

Due to what I have just described, the final changes are most striking in the widest part of the cone. An apple directly in front of you may obscure the whole world, but as the distance increases, it becomes less and less visible. Therefore, in most cases, we ignore the movement of the eyeballs and assume that the PV cone starts in front of our heads - and you can freely rotate the eyeballs without changing the position of the head - and the perspective will not change.

true size

Now we know why the size of an object changes with distance. But how can we determine the "true" size? When the size of the object looks like it is in reality? If you read carefully, you should know the answer to this question - there is no such thing as "true size". When you measure something with a ruler, you are comparing it to a unit size of 1 centimeter - a unit that also changes with distance, and therefore is not constant to your eyes. It is impossible to measure an object that changes in perspective.

However, there is a trick that our eyes use to avoid inconvenience. The first key to determining the size is to pay attention to how much of the frame it takes up.

We have already noted that even large objects shrink with distance. How can we, in this case, be able to distinguish a large, but far away object from a small, but close one? We need some depth indicator, which our eyes use when the distance is too great and binocular vision is of no use.

Experience

It is most important. You know the building is big enough to fit you inside, so if it looks too small for that, it must be far away.

Comparison

Since the size of the frame is constantly changing, we can use proportions to approximate the size. This means that everything within the same box will decrease according to some factor that you can use in your equation to get back to the original result. Therefore, we often use a human silhouette in many scenes - this is done to emphasize her size. You can also use well-known objects like trees, mountains (when they look small compared to the main object, it must be huge), or grass (when it's huge, the main object must be tiny).

Depth of Field (HP)

When you use a small GPU, you can separate close objects from distant ones. easy trick to show the distance between the observer and the scene - draw some minor objects in front of the observer and blur them. Even if you don't want to use blur, out-of-focus areas should be less detailed.

overlap

One object can only overlap another if it is closer than the second object. This says a lot about distance, and it's also the easiest, most intuitive way to create depth.

Atmospheric Perspective

You can read about this in my other article, but here's the bottom line: the further away something is, the more the color of the sky scatters between you and this object. When the air is very clean this doesn't work, but in most cases a blurrier object = further away object.

By combining all these tricks, you can achieve the same depth that one-eyed people see. There's also a cool experiment to test how well your brain recreates depth from a 2D image. Find larger photo V good quality(a photo on a computer screen is acceptable), close one eye and make a "telescope" out of your palm. Look through it at the photo to see only the picture and nothing else. There is a good chance that you will see it in 3D!

distortion

If you have been looking closely at our cone, you must have noticed one strange thing. 2D planes are not really flat - they look like shallow plates. This means that they spherical like the Earth, and just as we can't create a perfect, undistorted 2D map, we can't create a 2D frame without distortion.

The illustration below clearly shows that the line, although perpendicular to the line of sight, touches two different frames. As we know, the farther the box, the smaller the object - so part of the line will become smaller, making the whole line shorter and turned away from us!

To obtain a likely undistorted image, the object must be placed directly in the center of the FOV cone so that all its sides are perpendicular to the line of sight. In the case of 3D objects this is not possible - so they always look distorted.

1 - the line is perpendicular to the line of sight, so it is perceived as straight and with full length; 2 - the lines are parallel to the line of sight, so they look like dots; 3 - the line lies in the "shadow" of the first line, so we won't see it at all

Incidentally, the camera lens also picks up distortion, but this is usually undesirable and is cut off by the sensor. Wide-angle lenses accept some of the distortion, while fish-eye lenses accept all of it. In fact, our eyes work like a fish-eye lens, and our brain tells us that we see straight lines! Don't believe? I will explain this in more detail soon.

Let's see how it works. When we want to see the other side of the cube, we need to rotate it. However, at the same time, the perpendicularity of the first side is lost - both sides are located along several frames at different distances (depth). Therefore, some of their parts look farther and shorter - that is, turned.

This is how the first riddle is solved. But is there any way to anticipate the distortion without having to first draw the 2D view with all the curves?

To begin with, you need to remember that we have two horizons - horizontal and vertical. We are so familiar with the horizontal horizon that we don't even notice the second one. But of course, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist!

1 - horizontal horizon; 2 - vertical horizon

Both horizons intersect right in the center, at the point you are looking at. You can move along the horizon, up and down, which is basically the same as moving left and right. For now, let's assume that left and right refer to the horizontal horizon, while top and bottom refer to the vertical.

You can also move in a criss-cross pattern, such as up one horizon and left on another.

The central area looks closest to us. It is also the least distorted region. Therefore, it is used as a full frame and the basis for linear perspective. However, this approach does not explain why the lines bend!

Remember that the image in your head is spherical; only your brain tells you that it is absolutely straight. When you focus on a small area in the center (A), the rounding of the lines is not as noticeable, but on a larger scale it is critical for a true 3D image. Take a close look at the illustration below.

Imagine a row of cubes along the horizon, parallel to your eyes. The one at point A will appear closest to you, while the others will appear receding.

1 - "true" line; 2 - observed line

Why? This is the same distortion we talked about earlier. Now let's talk about the front faces of these cubes. Both points A lie on the same frame, so they are perceived from the same distance, however, there is a difference in depth between points B and C. For points E and D, this difference is huge!

If it's still unclear to you how it's possible that we get a convex image on a concave cone frame, here's the answer:

When you rotate the view, it becomes obvious that point B is further away from us than point A.

The main conclusion of all this is the illustration below. Best and the simplest lesson which you can get about perspective is:

The higher the object above * the horizon, the more of its lower ** and less of its front part is visible to us

Now you can create similar situations with this example, with "*below" and "**top", or with "*left" and "**right", and so on. Just create pairs from opposite sides and the rule will work! Addition to this lesson:

This, perhaps, is all. What? Too easy? Where are the vanishing points and all that...? If you really want to know then here is the answer:

Disadvantages of Linear Perspective

Linear perspective is a simplified version of what we talked about. Let's see how this is possible.

0 Point Perspective

In this perspective, all straight lines are parallel or perpendicular to each other. They don't converge at any point. We can observe this perspective by looking at the center of our FOV when the object is directly in front of us.

Perspective with 1 Vanishing Point

In this perspective, all lines that are not parallel or perpendicular to each other converge to a single point on the horizon. This effect is identical to that observed in the central region, except that distortion will appear in reality. To do this, objects need to stand perpendicular to the line of sight.

Perspective with 2 Vanishing Points

In this perspective, there are 2 points on the horizon where all lines converge except those that are parallel to each other. We can observe this effect by expanding the central area. Here objects can be rotated.

Perspective with 3 Vanishing Points

There are no parallel or perpendicular lines in this perspective. They all converge to one of two points on the horizon, or to a third point on the vertical horizon. This effect can be observed peripherally, especially up/down (for example, looking at a tall building). Rotation is welcome.

Why is it so difficult to use it?

There are two main reasons why linear perspective looks so unintuitive and keeps you from spontaneous drawings.

First, vanishing points do not refer to the observer's position, but to objects in relation to them. Each object has its own vanishing points, so it's easiest to arrange them all in a row so that they all have the same vanishing points. If you prepare one perspective grid and give it all the objects, you will end up with a rigid, man-made space - and lose control over the composition. On the other hand, the more vanishing points, the more chaos and work for you.

A-0 TS; B-1 TS; C - 2 vehicles; D - 3 vehicles

Second, only human-made objects tend to be regular enough to have lines on them. Organic things, such as living beings, follow the rules of perspective like everything else, but they are too dynamic to be constrained by rigid lines. Therefore, using a linear perspective for living beings simply kills their spirit. How often does a lion stand upright, with its sides perpendicular to you?

Imagine trying to use linear perspective on a second, more interesting shape!

Conclusion

I agree, the prospect is not the best light theme- Well, what topic is easy? If you want to become a good artist, it is impossible to avoid such things. If the topic is still incomprehensible to you - do not worry, let it take as long as it takes to understand it; divide it into parts and study very carefully. I firmly believe that this is the basis of everything that concerns the recreation of reality. Yes, it is difficult, but believe me, after that everything will be easy!

Perspective allows you to paint the world seen from the back of a horse or dragon through the eyes of a small worm or a flying bird. It creates dynamics, movement, life. It turns a rigid frame into a vivid memory. If you want to breathe life into your drawings, stop thinking only about the objects being depicted, and focus your attention on the observer as well. Without them there would be no picture!

The first rule of linear perspective is to learn it so you can discard it. I hope that after this lesson you will not want to discard anything - this is knowledge that will give you creative freedom in obeying the rules of vision. Apply linear perspective to buildings and room plans, and anything where you just need to figure out what's going on in your drawing. You have just taken a huge step towards becoming a great artist!

First you need to understand and understand the basic principles that have been discovered Italian architect Brunelleschi in the 2nd half of the 15th century.

What is perspective? The word perspective comes from the Latin verb "perspicere" - "clearly see", "carefully consider". "Perspective" has several meanings. I will voice the concept in the visual arts. This is an image of objects obtained on any surface in accordance with the apparent changes in their size, clarity of the outline of their shape and light and shade relationships that can be observed in nature.

There will be many concepts in our subject, which we will deal with as needed. The first such concept is "horizon". In perspective, they say the True horizon is a simple horizontal line located at the level of our eyes and corresponding to the line of the sea (hereinafter referred to as the horizon or horizon line).

The position of the horizon line is always related to the eye level of the observer. Where there is an eye, there is a horizon. When defining the horizon line on the canvas, you must remember that all objects above it are located above eye level, and all objects below it are located below.

Simple constructions

The concept of perspective is based on the phenomenon that distant objects appear smaller than they actually are. This can be most clearly observed in the example of a railway with poles along it (Fig. 1). As you can see Railway, as it moves away, on the horizon converges to one point or completely disappears. Also, the pillars, moving away, look smaller and smaller. Everything that we see in the world around us is subject to a similar apparent reduction and change: objects, things and phenomena. All horizontal lines, if extended, converge to points on the horizon line. From this it is obvious the most important rule perspective: parallel lines of objects in the picture converge at one point. The point where the parallel lines moving away from us converge is called the vanishing point.

It should be noted that if you look at a cube at a right angle to one of its sides, then this side will not be subject to perspective contraction. In this case, there is only one vanishing point. If one observes a cube facing the viewer, all its sides are in perspective contraction with respect to the viewer. In this case, there are already two vanishing points. A cube or any other object can be above the horizon line, below the horizon line, and on the horizon line. The illustrations show this clearly.

On Fig. 2 the object is located on the horizon line. In this case, we must remember that if the cube touches the horizon line, then we should not see the top, bottom and two far sides. Of course, we can mark the non-visible sides with dotted lines.
There is one more not enough important point, bringing the object closer to the viewer, we thereby bring the vanishing points closer to each other and make the vanishing lines steeper. Accordingly, everything is reversed to move the subject away from the viewer.

On Fig. 3 the object is located above the line and below the horizon line. In this case visible sides already three out of six. Try experimenting by placing the cube at different heights and at different angles, and remember, no one forbade touching the horizon line.

Complex constructions

Let's try to complicate our cube and add a sloping roof to it. Draw a perpendicular through the point of intersection of the diagonals of the end side of the cube. On this perpendicular will be the end of the roof ridge closest to us. Note that the perpendicular does not pass through the center of the wall, but is somewhat shifted to the right corner. We mark on the perpendicular the desired height of the upper point of the roof, draw oblique lines from it, indicating the slope of the roof. Then we connect the top point to the vanishing point, which will eventually give us the crest of the roof (Fig. 4). The far slope is not parallel to the near one, the slope also has its own vanishing points and, like the cube, it is subject to perspective contractions.

Let's draw an even more complex object (Fig. 5). A house with an outbuilding and a chimney, when building a perspective, the same principle is used as when depicting a simple cube. This principle applies to everything - to all protruding parts.

On Fig. Figure 6 shows how to position multiple objects at different angles to each other. In this case, it is important to remember that each object has its own vanishing point. The larger the angle at which the object is located, the closer its vanishing point, and vice versa: the more the cube is turned, the farther its vanishing point.

Rice. 7 illustrates another important point. There is one horizon line for one picture, but for each object you can create your own vanishing points, which must be strictly on the same line within the given composition.

Image of shadows

Usually, shadows falling from objects are drawn by eye. If the shadows fall on an uneven surface, there are many examples of this: water, loosened earth, etc., then a small error is practically not noticeable. In order to avoid blunders, it is important to know the main laws of constructing the perspective of shadows.
Many errors occur due to inattention, for example, the nature of the surface on which the shadows fall is not taken into account.
The whole difficulty in building the perspective of shadows is that it is necessary to constantly take into account the location of the light source. On Fig. 8 is an illustration of how the shadow cast by our cube or any other angular object is built.

On Fig. 9 clearly shows when the light source is one, and there are many objects. Basically the same laws of linear perspective.

C Fig. 10 try to figure it out on your own.

Ellipses and Curves

As you can see, a circle inscribed in a square touches all sides of the square, the sides of the square are tangent to the circle. It will not be difficult for us to draw a square taking into account the perspective and inscribe a circle in it. Rice. 11 illustrates this clearly. Thus, we have learned to depict circles in perspective, and at the same time, cylinders, glasses and other objects of rotation. If not, then maybe it's time to learn ;)

There are objects that are very difficult to draw due to their curvilinear shape, but knowing perspective can help you. Putting your subject in an imaginary box drawn according to the laws of perspective will make it easier for you.

Reflections

The construction of an image of the reflection of an object in water or on any other strongly reflecting plane is as follows: from the highest point of the object, a perpendicular is lowered to the reflection surface, then the perpendicular is extended by the same distance to the bottom, where the end of the reflection of the object is determined.
Consider a simple reflection of a stick sticking out of the water (Fig. 12). It is important to understand here that if an object sticks out vertically from the water, then its reflection will be equal to the length of its visible part. Also, this rule can be applied to an object sticking out at an angle in a plane strictly perpendicular to the observer's gaze. Things are quite different if the stick is tilted towards the viewer or away from the viewer, in which case the reflection on the surface will be the length of the visible part of the stick or shorter, respectively.

A building standing at the very edge of the water will be reflected in its entirety. A more complex reflection occurs when the building is located not near the water itself or in the water, but at a distance from the shore. Then an additional construction is applied. Rice. 13, In this case, the key point is the segment BA 'this segment is the height difference between the base of the building and the water surface. We heard the expression "Height above sea level" and this is our case. When drawing a gentle slope of the coast or a sandy beach, this distance is determined by eye. When drawing, for example, a pier or a pier, the height of the visible part of the pier is taken as the base of the segment BA '.

aerial perspective

Smoke, dust, precipitation are all contained in the air and atmosphere. As an example, you can take the distance of the horizon, even on a clear day it is foggy, gray or gray-blue tones predominate. Of course, we must not forget about the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, because the density of the fog directly depends on this. This natural effect is aerial perspective.

Aerial perspective is manifested in such phenomena as:

• Contrast it is the difference in characteristics of different parts of the image. In the foreground, it is maximum, with increasing distance it loses its clarity, and then completely dissolves in blue or gray tones.
• Shades of colors it is a kind of color. With increasing distance, the shades lose their original brightness, turn pale.
• Color it is coloration, the ability to emit, absorb or reflect light of a certain spectrum. Warm colors in the foreground, taking on a bluish or grayish tint in the background.

At this point, I would like to stop studying theory and move on to Photoshop.

Tools

In work, it is best to use the version CS4 and higher, Photoshop programs, we use a tablet as an input means, the more expensive, the better;)
To begin with, I will list the tools that should be used when building a perspective.

			Align Tool Key: V
			Lasso tool hotkey: L or Shift + L
			Rectilinear Lasso Tool Hotkey: L or Shift + L
			Pen tool hotkey: P
			Arrow Tool Key: A
			Rotate View Tool Key: R
			Ellipse Tool Key: U

And of course, such main menu items as: Free Transform, Transform, Warp, Perspective, Distort, etc.

What should you start with? Of course with a pencil and paper. Not one, even the most perfect tablet, coupled with an expensive monitor, does not give such freedom of creativity, ideas and hand coordination as a simple graphite pencil, eraser, ruler and drawing paper. Of course, this applies to the stage of sketching and building perspective, but when it comes to color and paint, computer graphics pushes far ahead. Of course, this is all lyrics and purely my personal opinion, for sure many will argue with me, but let's not be distracted.

And so, a pencil sketch with all the lines of building perspective is ready. Scan it and open it in Photoshop. Of course, you can resort to using pasteurization or another way to clean the sketch from extra spots or leave everything as it is and continue with the color. But to put it mildly, I do not like to do this, I prefer to trace my pencil sketch and use these lines as part of the picture. Very good, fast and convenient way Outlining is using the Standard Hard Round Brush in combination with the Shift key. Put a dot at the beginning straight cut, hold down Shift, put a dot at the end of the cut. Experiment with brush dynamics settings, find the best option for yourself.

There are times when there is no scanner at hand and here, whatever one may say, you will have to draw everything on a tablet. In such cases, I use the Pen Tool, editing the direction of the line with the Arrow Tool. It is very convenient to use in those cases when you draw, no matter what the standard angle, the “Rotate View” tool. I use the Rectilinear Lasso Tool when I need to draw a plane. Practice using these tools.
Here are some examples from my work (the commentary for each example is below it):

This example just illustrates our conversation that we had above about pencil sketch followed by a stroke on the computer.

In this example, I did all the construction of perspective and composition on the tablet, without resorting to the wave of a pencil and paper. In the work, the following tools were mainly used: "Pen", "Arrow", "Ellipse" and "View Rotation".

Finally, the last example, here you probably will not find more than one straight line of construction. The sketch was made on the computer without resorting to the wave of a pencil, with a standard brush, without auxiliary tools. Only the Rotate View tool was used. Notice how you can distort the perspective, in such cases, all objects in the picture are distorted, otherwise you will get a mess. ;)

Used literature, for those who want to expand their knowledge in the huge topic "Linear perspective": M.N. Makarov " Practical Perspective”, Ray Campbell Smith “Perspective”, N. Lee “Fundamentals of Educational Academic Drawing”.

This lesson is about prospects And vanishing points.

The video shows a very quick sketch of a room (which is made up) showing the two vanishing point linear perspective most commonly used by artists. Notice the two vanishing points on the horizon. In this case, both vanishing points are within the sheet of paper. It is not always so. Vanishing points will always be on the horizon. The horizon will always be at eye level of the observer. Notice how in the sketch all the parallel lines converge to the same point on the horizon.

Drawing interior spaces is very good way to understand perspective. For practice, try drawing rooms inside your house.

About Linear Perspective

Linear perspective in painting is a set of rules used to draw 3-dimensional objects on a flat (2-dimensional) surface. The topic can be quite complex, but luckily you don't need to be an expert to draw well. There are 2 basic rules of linear perspective that you should remember:

1. Objects that are closer are shown larger.
2. Parallel lines intersect on the horizon.

We will go into more detail about these 2 points below.

Rule #1: Objects that are closer appear larger.

Take a look at the picture on the left. It depicts 3 black paintings hanging on the wall.

Do you think the paintings are the same size in real life?
Are they the same size in the picture?

The answer to the first question is YES. The paintings shown here are the same size in real life. The answer to the second question is NO. The figure clearly shows how the size of the paintings changes with distance. As the distance increases, the paintings are shown smaller. The picture that is closest to us is drawn by the largest, the second by the smaller, and the last by the smallest.

Click to enlarge image

Rule #2: Parallel lines intersect at the horizon.

Take a look at the picture on the left. It depicts railroad tracks.

Do the rails ever cross in real life?
Do they intersect in the picture?

The answer to the first question is, of course, NO. The rails never cross in real life, they are parallel to each other.
The answer to the second question is YES. If you look inside the tunnels, you will notice that all 4 rails (which are parallel to each other in real life) will meet at the same point. This point will be on the horizon.

One Point Perspective Example

The drawing on the left shows a cube drawn with a single point in perspective.
Single point perspective is used to draw objects that are directly facing the viewer.

Click to enlarge image

Example with Two Points in Perspective

The drawing on the left shows a cube with two points in perspective.
The two-point perspective is most commonly used in drawing. The cube on the left is very good example both rules of linear perspective. Notice how the front face looks bigger in size (rule #1). Also notice how the parallel lines converge to a single point on the horizon (rule #2).

Click to enlarge image

City in perspective drawing

Despite the fact that we live in a three-dimensional world, we only have two dimensions for drawing objects on paper. The third dimension, the one that gives depth to a painting, drawing, sketch, or whatever, is created using the rules of perspective. Even if you only paint still lifes on a table, you need to understand and master the principles of perspective.

Fundamentals of perspective in drawing

Here are the main concepts used in the theory:

• vanishing point;
• main line of sight;
• skyline;
• subject plane;
• picture plane;
• vision angle.

Before we begin to figure out what all this means, let's digress a little and remember, for example, grammar. No one, except perhaps specialists, is particularly interested in grammar. We acknowledge that it helps us express ourselves better (assuming we don't have to reach for a textbook before we dare to open our mouths). We conjugate verbs and build sentences completely automatically without thinking about it. We can do it because we've heard the same grammatical constructions literally thousands of times.

It's the same with perspective. By itself, the science of perspective is of little interest to most of us. We are only interested in it to the extent that it can help us draw better. In other words, there are two ways to approach perspective: the scientific or theoretical way and the practical way. With a theoretical approach, you will learn a set of abstract rules, and you can be sure that you will get bored of it very quickly.

Therefore, it makes sense to approach the issue of artistic perspective from a practical point of view.

Of course, one could do without perspective altogether, but that would not be entirely true. Perspective is the most powerful way to add realism and depth to your drawings, making them more alive and natural. Without it, the artistic tools at your disposal (and therefore your results) will be limited, and here's why.

Perspective is a hidden yet vital element of a landscape, subject, or portrait. It is, in fact, an optical illusion that is applied to everything you see. Remember that drawing is not the same as sculpture. Your task is to reproduce on a flat sheet of paper what actually has a third dimension: depth. So, perspective is just an optical illusion applied to everything you look at. That's why we need to know a little about how our brain builds a picture.

Historically, it took some time for artists to come to an agreement on perspective. Many medieval works of art are very beautiful, but they show things as they are, not as the eye sees them.

Look at this illustration for example. The chessboard is visible without relief, but the pieces on the board are shown in profile and rotated in the direction in which they are mounted on the board. The columns are deployed at some strange angle. And the women are quite curiously disposed. In other words, there are several different "points of view" in one picture, and this is rather repulsive.

Two Spanish ladies are playing chess. From the book of Alfonso X the Wise, 1283

This Persian medieval miniature is another example of a partial lack of perspective. Here several different points of view are combined into one picture. And we notice that the people and horses in the background are as big as those closer to us. In the future, of course, they will be smaller.

Courage of Jalaluddin. Masud ibn Osmoni Kukhistani, "Tarihi Abulkhair", 1541.

And in this photo, the road seems to get smaller and smaller as it moves away from our view. In reality, of course, the width is always the same - otherwise there wouldn't be enough room for cars!

When looking at this photo, it looks like the two rails ended up coming together. Visually speaking, this is true, but only visually. The mind and the eye are in constant conflict: the mind tells the brain: "these rails are parallel and horizontal." The eye replies: "as you can see, the rails rise to the sky and become thinner towards the top." The brain says: “The rails are always parallel, otherwise the trains would derail.”

Linear perspective example

But if we want to be good at drawing, we need to stop “thinking about the world” and instead start listening to what our eyes are telling us. As you will see, it is always difficult to forget our knowledge of things when we are trying to decipher them. Yet we must learn to focus solely on visual perception. You are faced with a landscape stretching before your eyes towards the horizon. Your brain registers depth as it moves from the foreground into the distance. You have no problem in placing, determining what you see on the left and right on the respective sides of the sheet of paper. But how are you going to visualize depth?

Perspective Rules in a Drawing

Here are three main principles that can be used individually or all together.

• The trees closest to us need to be drawn in front of those that are further away - this will have the effect of their partial overlap.
• The trees farthest from us need to be drawn lighter, with less pressure, this will create the illusion of air space.
• Draw the trees in the background smaller than the ones in the front - this will give us a distance effect.

Trees in perspective, pencil drawing
View of the lake and the island from the lawn. William Marlow, 1763

Let's now look at this interior drawing. A perspective that gives the impression of depth presents the room not as it really is, but as the eye perceives it. Drawing in perspective is essentially the art of drawing "wrong" in such a way that final result seems to be "correct". Or, to put it another way, it is the art of closing one eye in order to see better.

Room in perspective with furniture, drawing

First of all, let's take another look at the picture. You can observe the same thing if you look around in the room you are in. The walls are at right angles to each other, there is a window with shutters and parquet flooring. Look at the lines formed by the edges of objects and the corners of walls. The lines are mostly vertical or horizontal and perpendicular to each other. This is completely natural, since the architect designed everything at right angles, and the builder used the plumb line, given area, and technical drawings to bring the architect's plan to life.

Understanding the Idea of ​​Perspective

Try to imagine the problem from the perspective of a blind person. He will not be able to appreciate the depth of a place until he has had the opportunity to walk within that space. Unlike those of us who have vision, he does not have the ability to "travel with the eye". If someone blind from birth were suddenly able to see, he would have the terrible impression that everything is thrown in his face. But at that time, if a blind person cannot drive a car, then a one-eyed man or woman certainly can. In other words, having only one eye does not interfere with judging the depth of a place or the distance separating, for example, two cars. 3D vision is not the only way to get depth information. We could say that a one-eyed person driving a car "reads" depth in perspective, while you "write" that perspective when you draw to create the illusion of depth. The procedure is almost the opposite.

The image goes through unbelievably difficult part photographic equipment is your eye. You can connect a printer to this wonderful camera which consists of a piece of paper, a pencil and a hand. Everything is pre-installed, it remains only to learn how to use it!

How to give the impression of depth

In the fine arts to create optical illusion various tricks are applied, such as overlaying two drawings, using shadow, relief and, of course, perspective. It is also possible to combine several methods. The two most frequently chosen by artists are relief and perspective. When used together, they give an amazing feeling of realism to the drawing.

Wherever you look, you are "casting" a visual beam in that direction. The beam travels in a straight line from your eye to the center of the image it perceives and moves with your eyes. Aim with an imaginary rifle at the target. The main line of sight (your visual line) corresponds to the trajectory of the bullet. The point at which the bullet hits the target is called the vanishing point.

Direct Linear Perspective Example

Our vision is more or less conical. That is, when we look in a certain direction, the width of our vision is about 20 centimeters in the foreground and several hundred meters in the far. The further you look, the wider the field around the vanishing point. Depending on the orientation of our visual beam, objects appear distorted to our eyes, obeying the laws of optics and perspective.

So when you start drawing, it's important to determine the height and orientation of your visual beam and save it. This means choosing a single point of view. If you skip this point and combine multiple viewpoints, your objects and shapes will look very unrealistic and the drawing will start to fall apart.

Imagine a horizontal disk located around the head at eye level and extending to infinity. This disc gives an idea of ​​the main element of perspective: the horizon plane.

The horizon plane is an imaginary line located at eye level and extending to infinity. Of course, you will only see a part of it - a horizontal line, located at 360 °. This line is called the horizon line. Now suppose you move yourself along with your imaginary disk to coastline. This is what you will see. It can be seen that the line precisely divides the landscape between sky and water, merging with what we usually call the horizon.

Now imagine that you have climbed the tallest coconut tree on the island and see if the natural horizon has passed below the disk you were holding at eye level. You will notice that this is not the case. The horizon, the horizontal plane, the horizon line, and your eye rise and fall together. It is important to remember that the horizon line is always at eye level.

It's the same with photography. The horizon rises with the camera.

The artist's horizon plane, related to his point of view, determines the height of the natural horizon. When you choose the height of the horizon in a painting, you are defining that point of view for anyone looking at the painting. Your choice will determine if the viewer is in a dominant situation with respect to the subject.

If you look at the depicted figure from top to bottom, then you kind of dominate it.

Centered, a mid-height horizon line gives the image a symmetry that removes the human aspect.

If the point of view is from below, the depicted dominates you. It seems to have acquired a certain dominance, and you, in a sense, are in its power.

Thus, perspective in a drawing is not just a tool for accurately representing something, it is also a means for expanding your artistic dictionary. But do not confuse point of view with composition. The same scene viewed from the same place can be drawn in different ways, it's a matter of aesthetic choice. The point of view determines the perspective, while the composition sets the frame.

Frontal perspective

The simplest type spatial image- with one vanishing point. The perspective is called frontal (single-point) if the object is depicted in the frontal position (“full face”), that is, part of its faces is parallel to the picture plane.

Frontal (single-point) perspective

Note that all lines parallel to the line of sight converge at the main point - the vanishing point. All other vertical and horizontal lines perpendicular to the line of sight remain vertical or horizontal even after being placed in perspective.

Angular perspective

If the depicted objects are at an angle to the viewer, then such a perspective is called. Its key feature is the presence of two vanishing points.

This means perspective, in which we look at an object from an angle. As an example of a perspective with two vanishing points, for clarity, we again give an image of a cube. Its ribs run along the vanishing lines. Some faces of the object in such a perspective remain parallel to the picture plane (in our case, these are the side faces). This is the most common type of perspective image, since most objects in real world located relative to us at an angle.

Angular (two-point) perspective

Perspective with three vanishing points

The third way to draw perspective is, it is also called vertical or oblique. In perspective with three vanishing points, you need to additionally draw a distortion upwards in angled perspective. This visualization method is often used to architectural drawings. With this method, you can draw skyscrapers very effectively.

We resort to such a perspective, for example, when we look at a tall building from the bottom up, and also in cases where none of the faces of the depicted object is parallel to the picture plane. The third vanishing point above the horizon is called zenith. The one below - nadir.

In the image below, you can see how the vertical edges of the cube are distorted in perspective by the third vanishing point.

Perspective with three vanishing points

In order to competently and realistically create a drawing, you need to know some laws of perspective and be able to work with them. Perspective is a whole direction in the art of drawing, which helps us determine the size of various objects that change depending on their location and distance from us - these can be houses, other objects, in general, everything. Perspective also serves to make our drawing voluminous. Now let's take a closer look at what perspective is for artists.

Perspective in a drawing takes into account the point from which we look at what is happening, what we see from this point, at what angle we see objects in the picture. Most of the laws of this area were developed back in the Renaissance. Since then, artists have been able to depict paintings from any point of view, and make them voluminous. The laws are based on straight lines, which, with certain rules for their imposition, will accurately indicate to us the size of objects as they move away. When we start drawing, we try to transfer the 3D scene onto canvas or paper, so how do we do that?

Parallel lines that go to the horizon will tend to one point and converge on the horizon at it. The imaginary lines that continue the lines of the object also converge at one point on the horizon or at eye level. The closer the object is to you, the more distorted form he will accept. For example, a matchbox next to you will distort (decrease the angle of departure) much more than a large house far away from you. Closer objects or planes appear larger than distant ones. If you are drawing from nature, then measure all dimensions with a pencil.

The space that you draw can be divided into three conditional plans. The distant plan is what is in the very distance or at the very horizon, medium shot and near plan - what is directly in front of you. Objects get smaller and smaller as they move away. For precise definitions These dimensions apply straight lines that tend from the edge of the surface of the most forward objects to the horizon and converge to a point. Thus, it is possible to build the correct perspective.

A very important component in the perspective is the point of view or the level of sight, eye level, you can call it differently. Eye level and horizon are one and the same! If you stand in front of the rails on a railroad track, you will see that the rails run away into the distance, getting smaller and closer to each other until they converge to a point that is exactly at eye level. If you sit down, then the level of the eyes will decrease, the area above the eye level will increase markedly, and below it will decrease. If we take off in an airplane, then both eye level and the horizon will fly up, and will not be somewhere below. Thus we have learned and will remember that the horizon and eye level are always at the same point in front of us.

If you are standing in front of the building, at the very foot, then you will not see its roof in any way. This also applies to smaller objects. For example, in this picture, your level of vision is at the level of the middle of the stairs. Thus, you see the top of the steps below your level of vision, but as the steps pass the level of vision, not only will the surface not be visible, but the steps will gradually tend to cover it more and more. Such seemingly elementary trifles must be remembered and applied in everything, initially dividing the plane of your drawing into two parts that share the level of view. If the lines of perspective are above your level of sight, then they, naturally, tend downward - to the horizon, if these lines are below the level of sight, then they will tend upward.

From the first time, everything seems to be clear and elementary. But these laws should always be remembered when you start drawing. Thus, you can depict full-fledged three-dimensional objects, from houses to boxes, and three-dimensional space.

In the following example, we see how lines can help in drawing a building and various objects on that building. As a result, all imaginary lines showing us a narrowing perspective converge at one point, which is exactly at the level of our gaze.

Drawing lesson. One-point, two-point and three-point perspective.

Single Point Perspective in Drawing. There is only one vanishing point here. It can be a tunnel where our gaze is focused on only one vanishing point, or we are looking up - at the top of a skyscraper. Such a perspective with one point, where all the lines converge, draws the viewer in, creating a feeling of flying into the distance. However, many artists try not to use single-point perspective, as they find it rather boring and monotonous. This kind of perspective is best used when you know exactly what this figure it is the only one applicable.

Two point perspective.

Two-point perspective is much more common and welcomed by artists. It can be a scene outdoors or indoors, where the viewer is surrounded by various objects, walls. The scene in such cases extends in several directions, all of which tend to converge at points on the horizon. Typically, in a two-point perspective, there is a left and right vanishing point on the horizon where objects are aiming. Part tends to the left point, part - to the right. This perspective also occurs with the upper and lower vanishing points of the straight lines. The latter is not entirely clear, but I will explain what it is. This may be the case when a person is walking forward and looking up, or he is walking forward along a street with skyscrapers. In such cases, when a person looks up, two vanishing points are created - one below his gaze, where the road and the bottoms of buildings go, and the top, where the vertical lines will converge, emphasizing the height of the buildings.

Three point perspective.

This perspective is much more difficult to build, but that makes it more interesting. It is used when the artist wants to show that he is looking from below or above, and not directly. In this case, you need to set the vanishing points at two horizontal points: the point of one of the sides and the vanishing point in front on the horizon, the vanishing point on the left and the vanishing point on the right + the vanishing point along vertical lines. If you are looking from above, then buildings and other tall objects will taper downwards; if you are looking from below, then, accordingly, buildings and objects will taper upwards.

In the future, the dimensions of all objects are calculated at first glance difficult. But now that you are familiar with its laws, you need to correctly depict only one object in the drawing, determine the boundary, the level of sight, and then the remaining objects can be determined only by continuing the lines from the main object, for example, a building. For example, a building with the prospect of going into the distance and two people following each other. The person behind will be lower than the previous one, but how can we determine how much lower he will be? It's pretty simple. draw a line, parallel line the roof of the house, only now not from the roof, but from the top of the first person. This line will clearly indicate how tall the next person will be.

This lesson on drawing and building perspective is over. If you have any questions - ask them in the comments. Follow the releases of the site to be aware of the next drawing lessons. Good luck!