BELLWORK

SINGLE POINT PERSPECTIVE

WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS COULD MEAN. DRAW A BREIF EXAMPLE

In perspective drawing, every set of parallel lines has its own vanishing point. I know that sounds a bit scary, but don't panic. We can keep it simple.

Let's look at this picture. It's in one-point perspective. All of the lines that are parallel to us - the railway sleepers and fence posts - go straight across or straight up and down, and if they were longer, they'd keep going straight across, or straight up and down, staying the same distance apart and not meeting. The lines at right-angles to us, the ones moving away from us, come together at a vanishing point in the middle of the picture.

VANISHING POINT

As things get further away, from us, they seems smaller and closer together. When they get far enough away, distances become ever tinier and so form a single point.

To draw one-point perspective, we arrange our subject so that one set of visible lines has a vanishing point right in front of us, and the set at right-angles goes out to infinity on each side. So if it's a road, it goes straight away from us, or if it is a house, one wall goes straight across in front of us, not sloping.

In reality of course, there are always objects which won't be lined up perfectly, but for now, let's keep things simple!

.To make sense of what we will be drawing, first lets take a look at a box from one-point perspective in real life. Then we can see how it works. Here's a photograph of a box on a table, again showing us how one set of lines stays parallel and the other set vanishes to a point. Note that the line across the back is not the horizon line - it's the edge of the table, and is lower than my eye level, and so, lower than the horizon. If we continue the lines made by the edges of the box, they meet at a point above the table - at eye level. If we could see into the distance, it would be on the horizon, (provided the camera is looking straight ahead, and not tilted). The front edges of the box are quite parallel.

Notice that the back of the box - which you know is the same size as the front - looks narrower from this point of view.

Let's draw a simple box using one-point perspective. First, draw a horizon line about one-third down your page. Use a small dot or line to mark a spot roughly in the middle of the line. That's your vanishing point. (Don't make it as big as this example - you want it to be small, so that all your lines finish in exactly the same spot.)

Now draw square or rectangle, well below and to one side of your vanishing point. Make sure your vertical lines are perpendicular (at right angles) to your horizon line, and your horizontal lines are parallel. No funny angles or wobbly lines! For a successful perspective drawing, you need straight lines and corners that meet exactly.

Now draw a line from each corner of your square or rectangle to the vanishing point. Make sure they are straight and finish exactly at the vanishing point. In perspective drawing, we call these lines orthogonal lines or orthogonals, which is derives somewhat from their meaning in mathematics (because they are at right angles to the horizontal plane).

Now comes the tricky bit. Draw a horizontal line, starting a little way along the bottom left vanishing line, across until it joins the bottom right vanishing line. This is the bottom edge of the back of your box. Make sure it is straight - parallel to the horizon and front edge. Now, draw two vertical lines, straight up, from where that back line meets the two vanishing lines, up to the two top vanishing lines. Then add the horizontal line that joins them.

The two biggest problems at this stage of the drawing are lines at angles - they must be straight - and lines that don't quite meet. If you stop short or go past the vanishing line ever so slightly, with one of the lines, you'll have trouble getting your last line straight.

If your box is close to the horizon or vanishing point, you might find that the angles are very obtuse (wide), and hard to get right.

Now you have finished constructing the box, you can erase the vanishing lines. You can keep all the lines inside the box if you want it to be see-through, like a fishtank, or, you can carefully erase the back corner - the bottom left, back, and lower back lines, as I have done in this example.

Let's take a look at a few more examples of 1pt perspective drawings. Why not have a go at drawing some of these yourself? Several objects on a single page can look very cool. Try drawing some more squares and rectangles in different places. Try one above the horizon line, and one right in the middle below the vanishing point.

Draw the vanishing lines for your boxes. So long as your ruler is lined up correctly, you can stop drawing just short of the vanishing point, so that it is still easy to see, and not lost in a tangle of lines.

Finish off your single point boxes. To get more practice with perspective drawing, try constructing some simple boxes and making them into complete drawings. You could draw a fishtank, an open box, and a solid box. Experiment with putting your horizon line at different heights.

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