Watercolor Painting for Dummies (39 page)
Read Watercolor Painting for Dummies Online
Authors: Colette Pitcher
Tags: #Art, #Techniques, #Watercolor Painting, #General
One-point perspective has all converging lines leading to one location. In Leonardo da Vinci’s
The Last Supper,
all lines lead to the center of the picture or the leading character, Christ. When you look down a road, the sides of the street seem to converge toward each other. Both of these are examples of one-point perspective.
One-point perspective is useful in simple situations. Flat buildings, straight roads, railroad tracks, and telephone lines and poles all follow one-point perspective nicely.
See Figure 8-6 for a visual of one-point perspective.
Figure 8-6:
This rural scene is drawn in one-point perspective.
Draw another cube, but this time use one-point perspective. Just follow these steps and refer to Figure 8-7:
1.
Draw a 1-inch square on drawing paper.
2.
Draw a horizon line above the square.
3.
Make a mark on the horizon line behind the square to serve as the vanishing point.
You can also put the vanishing point to the right or left of the square on the horizon line.
4.
Using a ruler, draw a line from each of the square’s top corners to the vanishing point on the horizon.
If you put your vanishing point to the side of the box, draw a third line to the vanishing point from the bottom corner of the square that is closest to the vanishing point.
5.
Draw a line parallel to the top of the square between the two lines that go to the vanishing point to indicate the top edge of a cube.
You now have two sides of a cube.
If you drew a vanishing point to the left or right of the square, complete the cube’s third side. (The top is side two.) From the corner of the top, draw a line parallel to the original square down to the vanishing line.
Figure 8-7:
A cube from one-point perspective.
For a different one-point perspective, do the exercise again but this time move the horizon line behind the square and draw the lines to the vanishing point from the top and bottom corners on one side of the square (see Figure 8-8).
Figure 8-8:
A different one-point perspective.
Two-point perspective uses two vanishing points on the horizon line where all the horizontal lines converge. A three-quarter view of a building where one corner is closest to the viewer and the two visible sides recede back into space uses this perspective. Figure 8-9 could be the beginnings of such a view.
Figure 8-9:
Two-point perspective example.
Two-point is the most useful of the three types of perspective. Most landscapes are drawn or painted in two-point perspective. You can also use two-point perspective in a still life. This type of perspective helps your drawings look believable, so your paintings will be more realistic.
In this exercise, you draw a cube in two-point perspective.
1.
Draw a horizon line.
2.
Make a 1-inch vertical line that crosses the horizon line.
3.
Make two dots on the horizon line about 3 inches away from the vertical line on either side.
4.
Draw lines from the top of the vertical line to the dots, or vanishing points, on the horizon line on both sides.
5.
Repeat Step 4 from the bottom of the vertical line.
6.
Draw a vertical line on each side of the central vertical line between the lines drawn in Steps 4 and 5.
You should have something resembling Figure 8-9.
This box is the basic shape to most buildings. It could also be a basket in a still life. It could even be the body of a cow. By moving the vanishing points and proportions, you can make any cube-like shape accurately.
Try drawing the box again. This time move the horizon line and vanishing points to resemble Figure 8-10. Your first vertical line can be above, below, or not even touching the horizon line.
Figure 8-10:
A different two-point perspective.
When experimenting with two-point perspective, remember that all the vertical sides stay vertical. Only the top and bottom change and recede to the vanishing point.
