Beginner's Guide to Perspective

Victor Perard

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486451480
• eBook ISBN: 9780486147253
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

Perspective is one of the most difficult skills to master—even for seasoned artists. In this book, distinguished artist and art educator Victor Perard shows clearly how the use of such simple techniques as vanishing points and perspective lines can add a dramatic depth and dimension to any drawing.
Sixty-two accompanying illustrations have been chosen to demonstrate a variety of problems the artist may encounter when creating a picture. Perard urges students to study them carefully and then apply the principles they represent when making their own sketches. He also provides some striking, illustrated studies in foreshortening and two-point perspective.

FOREWORD

Perspective is the principle by which an object receding from the position of the viewer appears, to the viewer, smaller than its true size, and, conversely, an object approaching the viewer’s position seems more and more to approximate its true size. The knowledge of perspective is an indispensable aid to the artist, who must represent on a flat surface subjects which, in actuality, exist in three dimensional space. As a test, take a ruler and measure a person forty feet away. As he approaches, see how much larger he seems to become. The test shows the apparent variation in size of an object, depending on its remoteness from or nearness to the viewer.

The vanishing point is that point on the horizon where parallel lines (perspective lines) seemingly converge and terminate. The vanishing point is always on the horizon. Any object within a picture will have perspective lines, though these lines are not visible in the finished drawing.

The horizon line is always on a level with the eyes of the observer, and it changes with the observer’s changing positions, as shown in the drawings that follow.

The drawings in this book have been chosen to illustrate the variety of problems which the artist encounters when creating a picture. Study them carefully and then apply the principles which they present when next you make a sketch.

Here, the exercise is measuring the apparently decreasing size of a figure as it grows distant from the viewer’s position.

Take a straight stick and study the angles the perspective lines take.

The horizon line is always on a level with the observer’s eyes.

When the observer’s position is low, the horizon line is low.

When the observer’s position is high, the horizon line is high.

In a very simple way you can make a good mechanical aid to help you draw and visualize perspective accurately. Take a box, remove the bottom, and divide the open end into squares by criss-cross threads, ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• FOREWORD