Perspective means an outlook, or a point of view. This can be figurative, like “taking a global perspective”…

David HockneyWoldgate Wood, 2006

or literal, like a bird’s eye view (looking from a high perspective, or directly down as in this image)

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or a “worm’s eye” view. Ok, that’s not really literal, because worms don’t see like we do, but you get the idea; and it is the term lots of artists use to describe a view from below like this.

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B vvvuLinear perspective is a technique that artists and

designers use to show dimension and a “realistic” or believable view of space. The bird’s eye and

worm’s eye views are examples of this.

Linear perspective uses one to three “vanishing points” and (sometimes) a horizon line to create a spatial illusion.

This slide shows how artists use 1-point perspective. Make a mini-sketch with labels in your notes, showing all of the info below

(you can paraphrase or make it shorter) .

This slide details 2-point perspective (2 vanishing points). Make a mini-sketch with labels of this also. Notice that the vertical lines are parallel

to the edge of the white page.

Check out 3-point perspective as well. You don’t need to create complete notes for 3-point, but you should if you have time. Either way, make

sure you completely understand. Notice that the diagram uses “ant’s eye” where we are saying “worm’s eye”– same thing.

Much of the time in a picture or photo that uses linear perspective you’ll be able to identify a horizon line, which is not just an arbitrary line or a line of sight, but the meeting of floor and wall, or earth and sky. In this image, the land tricks the eye, but the horizon is actually where the water meets the sky.

Photo by Louise LeBourgeois.

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In class we explored 1-point and 2-point perspective, with a nod to 3-point perspective as well. These all go under the category of linear perspective, which is what we call any technique using straight lines that recede to “vanishing points” to give a feeling of depth.

1-POINTFra Carnevale

The Annunciation, 1400s

2-POINTWorld’s Fair Building

photograph, Chicago, 1893

You won’t usually see each orthogonal line receding all the way to its vanishing point, but you can draw them on as we did. Or, start off with lines, then paint over them as Leonardo DaVinci and many other painters did (and still do). This is an unfinished painting showing perspective sketching by Leonardo from the 1400’s.

One of the most famous images from the Italian Renaissance (starting around the 1400s CE) is this fresco of the Last Supper, also by Leonardo.

This era of artmaking in Europe gave rise to many standardized techniques including linear perspective. You can probably tell that this image uses one point perspective. Guess where the vanishing point is…

For some artists, playing with linear perspective is a visual game.

M.C. Escher made these famously puzzling images in the 1950s.

In our culture, we’re raised to believe that linear perspective is the best way to draw or paint dimensional space, but that’s not necessarily true.

Photography has certainly shown that linear perspective is accurate, but other cultures use traditional techniques that are equally good.

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Photo by Bianca Marquez.

Painting: All Hands on Deck

Rabindra K.D.Kaur Singh, 1997

One you’ll see a lot in Asian art is atmospheric perspective—the sense of space created by depicting the fading effects of air and atmosphere between the foreground and the background of the image. Western art uses atmospheric perspective too, but this 18th century Japanese example shows it as a distinctly different, though equally valid, way of creating the illusion of space.