In this article, we will talk about 3 unmissable tips for perspective, and their different vanishing points, which are 3. You cannot miss any of the details mentioned during the article.
Pay attention to these 3 unmissable tips and make the most of them!
The purpose of perspective: to imitate the visual depth of reality on a flat surface
Perspective, which emerged from an arduous mathematical study during the Renaissance, aims to imitate the depth of reality on a flat surface.
It is convenient to go from smaller to larger, so you will start with the perspective of a vanishing point, understanding its “because”, to move on to the perspective of two vanishing points, and then to the perspective of three vanishing points.
You will be able to begin to see how it works, and apply it as freely as possible, in as many cases as you wish.
- ONE VANISHING POINT
The vanishing point perspective is the typical path that is lost in the distance, where everything goes to a single point on the horizon. In this way, all elements are placed parallel to each other.
If a second face appears, it will look completely flat, with straight sides, as if it were a two-dimensional drawing, but the viewer will be located in the middle of the plane looking straight ahead. Thus, it will give the sensation of being inside a tunnel.
2. TWO VANISHING POINTS
The two-point perspective, in its most common version, appears when an element is seen from the vertex, a corner. They are two perpendicular faces that escape to different points on the horizon.
They will not always be perpendicular faces, any point on the horizon will give us a new angle.
Since you will be working with buildings, houses or vehicles, they will generally be perpendicular directions (like the corner walls of a house).
Here, the same principle continues as in a vanishing point, the elements that vanish to the same point are located parallel, but the angle changes as the angle changes.
Therefore, this element has at least two vanishing points, depending on its volume. As in the previous one, the viewer is located in the middle of the plane looking to the front.
3. THREE VANISHING POINTS
In the three vanishing point perspective, something is seen from above, from below, or when a slope appears on the floor.
The third point is an element that moves away from our view.
The third vanishing point would be the one that vanishes in the false horizon, that is, an element moves away from our view, shrinking towards a point outside the horizon. This last one is added to the two previous ones (or those that exist).
If you look at a building from below, you will see that the higher floors get smaller as they move away from you. To represent these cases, you will use the third vanishing point.
The horizon is not in the middle of the plane; its location will depend on the point of view you choose for the illustration.
If you look up, you will see more sky than ground, so the horizon line goes down. On the other hand, if you look down, you will see more floor than sky, so the horizon goes up and the floor occupies more space in the plane.
Do the following exercise, put your hand in front of your face, as if you were blocking the sun, lower your head keeping your eyes on your hand, and you will see that it goes up, do the other way around, and you will see that it goes down.
When you look from above, the third vanishing point will be below the floor, since the elements “shrink” downward.
On the contrary, if you look from below, the opposite will happen, the point will be above, since the elements shrink towards the sky.
Another situation in which the third vanishing point appears is when there is an elevation or slope of the terrain. This will be useful to draw cities in the mountains, bridges, or similar cases.
The third vanishing point will be for streets, but not for buildings, since buildings always respond to the direction of the real floor (otherwise we would be left with crooked houses, roofs, doors and floors).
If the street is uphill, the false horizon will be above the real horizon, and if it is downhill, it will be below. Here, it will not be for the vertical lines, they will remain vertical, perpendicular to the real floor.
CONCLUSION
As you have been able to observe during the article, we mentioned the 3 vanishing points of the perspective. The function of each one of them, and the most important thing in perspective, its main objective: to imitate the visual depth of reality on a flat surface.
These 3 unmissable tips for perspective will allow you to complexify the volume of your illustrations. Also, as you practice, you will be able to work more freely with scenery and space.
Conquer this three-dimensional world!
