Drawing Lesson 3, Part 1 – Drawing in Perspective

Drawing in Perspective – One-Point Perspective

Video Lesson Description

In this video lesson you will discover how to do drawing in perspective using One-Point Perspective, Two- Point Perspective, Three- Point Perspective, and Four-Point Perspective; as well as Aerial Perspective, also know as Atmospheric Perspective.

Drawing in Perspective

This video part will explain what one-point perspective is and how to use it in your drawing in perspective.

A One-Point Perspective has single vanishing point. It is located right in front of viewer’s eyes on the horizon line that is always correlates with ones eye-level.

When drawing in perspective, lines radiate from the vanishing point. Object’s edges and forms follow those perspective lines.

Objects on the drawing in perspective are becoming smaller and distance between them shorter, the further away from the viewer they are.

There are two essential rules of the one-point perspective as follows:
1. Objects become smaller the further from the viewer they are.
2. Parallel lines converge in the vanishing point.

In drawing in perspective, the vanishing point is always located on the horizon line for parallel lines that are horizontal in real life. So railway tracks, for example, will have the vanishing point at the eye level.

However, if we take vertical parallel lines, let’s say two very high flag posts, the vanishing point for them will be high above the viewer’s head.

Let’s consider another example of the one-point perspective. For instance, a cube’s front plane that is facing the viewer will appear as a perfect square on the drawing in perspective. The cube side planes’ edges are parallel lines, and according to the one-perspective rule, will intersect in the vanishing point. As the cube stands on the horizontal surface, the vanishing point is located on the horizon right above the cube. The top and the bottom edges’ lines will radiate from this vanishing point. All vertical edges of this cube will appear perfectly upright at the right angle to the horizon.

The top, bottom and side planes of the cube will look distorted on the drawing in perspective. In real life they are square; on the drawing in perspective these squares will appear smaller than the front plane. This distortion is called foreshortening.

The drawing video lesson about one-point perspective will demonstrate all rules you need to know to use this kind of perspective in your drawings. This video presents several examples of a single vanishing point in drawing in perspective.

You will also discover how to depict 3-dimensiuonal nature of objects in one-point perspective by applying shading, which goes along the perspective lines.

In drawing in perspective, the ability to draw realistic ovals is essential skill every fine artist must have. Every circle shape can appear in perspective as an oval. Perspective distorts the circle shape into an ellipse and such ellipse looks like an oval on a flat surface of the drawing. To find out the difference between an ellipse and oval and rules that help to depict this shape, watch this video.

In this video part you will also see the real life examples of various objects as well as exteriors and interiors that are viewed in one-point perspective. These examples include detailed explanation of the perspective rules and applications.