ELEMENT OF ART: SPACE &

ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE

WHAT IS ONE-POINT PERSPECTIVE?

One point perspective is a

drawing method that shows how

things appear to get smaller as

they get further away. They

converge towards a single

‘vanishing point’ on the horizon

line.

ONE-POINT PERSPECTIVEThe lines of this road converge at a

vanishing point on the horizon line. In

this photograph, the horizon line is exactly at the eye

level of the photographer.

HORIZON LINE(Divides the ground from the sky)

VANISHING POINTis where objects disappear cause of distance

The vanishing point is indicated by the green dot.

Early Renaissance artists and architects discovered the rules

of perspective and used them in their

drawings.

Horizontal line

Before one point perspective, artists

had to guess where the lines of

buildings would go in their drawings.

These drawings tended to look

skewed and awkward.

BEFORE AFTER

Perspective added

depth and dimension

to both drawing and

painting.

Objects that are near the viewer are at the bottom of the

picture.

Objects will appear to get smaller and

closer to the horizon line the farther away

they go.

ONE-POINT PERSPECTIVE

Colours are darker when they are further away.

Details are in the foreground.

Objects that are above the horizon

line appear as if we are looking up

at them

Objects that are below the horizon line appear

as if we are looking down at them

Bedroom in arles by Vincent van Gogh

Horizon line

Notice the angle of the

legs on the chair

Notice the angle of the frame of the

bed.

When objects are below the horizon line, we see the top of the surfaces.

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT

DRAW A PAGE OF ONE-POINT

PERSPECTIVE CUBES

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT

One-point perspective

Draw at least three cubes to show one-point perspective from:

Above

Below

On the horizon line.

IN-CLASS ASSIGNMENT

One-point perspective

1. Draw a horizontal line on your paper. (red line)

2. Draw a vanishing point (green circle) (anywhere)

3. Draw a square (use a ruler) below the horizontal line.

4. Draw lines from the three corners of the square to the vanishing point (grey lines).

5. Draw lines parallel to the square (orange lines)

6. Join the orange lines to the square by tracing over the grey lines.

USE ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE TO

DRAW A CUBE