Drawing Practice: Day 13

Learning about vanishing points and perspective. Some things to think about:

• Perspective as like a rendering choice is something I don’t fully understand conceptually; Eviston’s framing is like “the more vanishing points you use, the more believable/realistic it will look”.
• Eye-level / horizon line as a key calibration.
• When drawing the face that is in perspective, how to choose length? Also how far away should vanishing points be on the horizon?
  • This part seems to be left “intuitive” in a lot of drawing classes? But I like to understand the underlying principles.
  • One principle: sides that points more directly away from you appear more foreshortened
• I found a reference here that seems to have a lot more technical detail which I think will be useful for me to work through:
  • Perspective in the world: Foundations of linear perspective, framed around the viewer rather than the object: distance cues (parallax, occlusion, texture gradients), the four perspective facts, the perspective setup, and common perspective distortions.
  • Central perspective: One-point perspective in depth, including the visual ray method, orthogonals and central recession, perspective gradients, distance and size scaling, constructing a 1PP cube, and early Renaissance methods.
  • Two point perspective: Covers 2PP construction: rotating the vanishing points, locating measure points, constructing a 2PP cube, inclined lines and planes, and practical questions like how far apart to space the vanishing points for a given object.
  • Three point perspective: Two methods for constructing 3PP drawings (the perspective sketch method and the horizon line method), with worked examples of constructing a 3PP cube.
  • Advanced perspective techniques: Perspective for complex plane figures and solid forms, drawing buildings from blueprints or plans, plus paraline (axonometric) and curvilinear perspective systems.
  • Shadows, reflections & atmosphere: The perspective of cast shadows (from the sun and from local lights), reflections, aerial perspective, and rainbows.

Here’s a ChatGPT supported set of additional references to dive deeper into later on:

• Bruce MacEvoy — “Two-Point Perspective”: The most detailed explanation of the geometry behind measuring points, station points, viewing distance, and constructing exact cubes in 2PP. Advanced and fairly dense.
• City Tech — “Two-Point Perspective”: Clear, diagram-heavy walkthrough of the complete construction, including the station point, center of vision, vanishing points, and measuring points.
• BYU–Idaho — “Measuring Points II”: A practical, step-by-step exercise in constructing a precise cube in two-point perspective using measuring points.
• Rex Vicat Cole — Perspective for Artists: A longer, artist-oriented discussion of perspective, depth measurement, station points, diagonals, and mechanical construction. Older language and terminology.
• Ernest Norling — Perspective Made Easy: A gradual introduction to perspective drawing as a whole, including two-point perspective, divisions, diagonals, and mechanical perspective. Best as a general introductory reference.