Linear and Atmospheric Perspective

Materials needed:

*Colored pencils

*Paper

*Ruler or straight edge

*Pencil

*Fine tip marker

This lesson was done with a little more advanced skill, but can easily be altered for a beginner. This project focuses on perspective drawing in an interior and exterior using one or two point perspective. The skills of perspective are foundations to creating realistic drawings of places or locations as well as foreshortening of objects, people, etc.

To begin the two-point perspective of an exterior space, take the ruler and draw a horizon line across the paper horizontally, parallel to the top and bottom edges of the paper. Then mark two dots on the paper close to the edges so there is a good distance between the dots. Put the dots on the horizon line. Starting with one point or dot, create two lines coming from that point and towards the bottom of the page. This point is one of two vanishing points. These lines will create a road. Do the same with the other point to create another road intersecting with the first one.

Once the roads are in, then begin the buildings by drawing a vertical line using the ruler. How long the line is will determine the height of the building. To create the walls of the building, using the ruler, draw a light line from the left vanishing point to the top of the vertical line drawn. Draw another connecting to the bottom. Repeat those steps for the right side of the building. Decide how long and wide the building will be. Do this by drawing vertical lines on both left and right that connect the two lines directed at the vanishing points. Now walls have been made. If the building height is below the horizon line, then a roof must be drawn if it s above or equal to the horizon line, the building shape is finished. To make the roof, take the ruler and draw a line form the right vanishing point to the top left corner of the left wall of the building. Then do the same for the right side of the building using the left vanishing point. Erase all lines not part of the objects/buildings.

With these basic skills of drawing three-dimensional shapes using perspective, anything can be added to the drawing – windows, doors, sidewalks, guidelines to help draw tree sizes regressing in the distance, etc. The key is to remember that vertical lines in real life stay vertical on the drawing and all other lines go towards one of the vanishing points.

For coloring with the colored pencils, keep the colors and pressure of the hand dark and heavy for closer objects and spaces, while getting lighter as the distance from the viewer increases, this is called atmospheric perspective. Go over all pencil lines with fine marker to give a clean look.

For the interior perspective, begin by connecting the corners of the paper with lines to create a large ‘x’ in the middle. Mark the center with a dot. Then to create the back wall of the room, draw a rectangle whose corners line up with a line of the ‘x.’ erase the ‘x’ lines inside the rectangle. The lines of the ‘x’ outside the rectangle are now the edges of the room creating a ceiling, walls, and floor. Just like the two point perspective, drawing perspective lines to the vanishing point in the middle of the page will create objects. Any lines in real life that are horizontal and vertical to the viewer will be so in the drawing. All other lines will recede to the vanishing point. Guidelines can also be drawn to create objects that are not rectangular, such as the hanging cloth over the bed, or the light on the ceiling. Geometric shapes drawn to the vanishing point will help guide the basic structure of organic or non-geometric shapes. If windows are present and reveal an exterior, the horizon lines will be drawn through the vanishing point. Erase any unnecessary lines like the other drawing.

In this project, I learned how to create irregular shapes using geometric shapes to help guide me. I never knew how to create those shapes until I experimented with his project. Willingness to experiment results in great and unique work as well as solving problems in creative ways.