Perspective
By Mel Rumsey

Like shading, perspective is another technique used to create the illusion of three dimensional space on a two dimensional media. Using perspective can give your picture the feel of having depth, or distance.

1. The first method we will discuss is called “one point perspective” The figure shows a drawn square. I then place a dot in the distance and draw lines from the dot to the edges of the object and use them to create the angles of the sides of a three dimensional shape, in this case, a cube. This method is used when you are viewing an object straight on one side.
Objects in the distance appear to get smaller, using this method helps you reproduce that effect onto your two dimensional surface.

2. The Second method is just an extension of the first. “Two point perspective” uses two points when neither side of the object is being viewed straight on, but at angles. You can see our cube now at a different “perspective” as both sides appear to move away from us. The illustration of the house is a simple example to show how you can use this method to create more complex shapes. This example is still without detail, for the simplicity of illustration, but if I were adding detail such as siding to the home, I would use the points to create all of my guidelines for the siding as well.

Just as the guidelines get closer together, lines like the fence rails will get smaller and fence posts will get smaller and closer together as they approach the distance.

 

The perspective points don’t need to be on your media. (paper, wood, etc.) In fact, most of the time they will be off the picture, especially it the object you are drawing occupies most of the space on the picture. The points are just a reference for you to develop a realistic feel of perspective for your piece. You may get to a point that you do not use actual dots, but still keep the idea in your design and sketching. The perspective points have to be level along the horizon line, which is level with your eye, but they can be placed anywhere along the line depending on the objects orientation. They are a reference of your point of view, so if you are looking up at an object the horizon line will be lower than the object. With most buildings the ground level is under you, and the roof is above, so the horizon line would cut across the middle of the building.

Although I won’t nor probably do I need to go into it much, you can use three point perspective as well.

3. Height and Overlapping


It is easy to see that one object in front of another overlaps the object behind, but objects behind others on the same level will appear higher to your eye. So another way to create the feel of depth is using height and overlapping.

Let’s take three simple shapes and set them on a flat surface. The first figure shows three shapes placed in a manner that doesn’t make much sense. By putting the object which is closest to our point of reference over and beneath the other two, and do the same for all three, it gives us the feel that the square is the closest object, and that the triangle is the farthest

4. Contrast and detail

Using contrast and detail is another good way to give perspective to a picture. Objects in the background will appear lighter and less detailed than objects in the foreground.

You can combine any and all of these techniques to give a picture a feel of perspective. In reference to the contrast and detail, that is only meaning an object in reference to itself. What I mean is that the mountains appear lighter in color in the background than they would if your point of reference was closer. So you don’t have to make all of the objects in the foreground dark, as shown with the sphere, but that the same object and the same color will appear lighter and less detailed in the background than it would in the foreground.

5. One last tip on perspective I will share. I am not sure what to call it other than "distortion". Just as the face of the cabin above is a square that has been distorted to give it a three dimensional feel, objects must be distorted to rotate them on a two dimensional surface. But this distortion must make sense to the eye. Let me sketch a mill wheel as we would find on an old saw mill to illustrate what I mean.

The mill wheel is a circle, but it is “distorted” into an oval to give it the feel as if we rotated the circle on a vertical axis. I could then draw an oval or at least an arch next to the first for the other side of the wheel. I then connect the two ovals (our distorted or rotated circles) with two parallel lines. I could angle it, or even use point perspective which would give me two different sizes of ovals and I could use the bigger one as the side of the wheel closest to me. However you do it depending on the design of your project, I hope this illustrates well how the principal of distortion is another method of creating perspective.

 

Here are a few examples of pyrographed pieces in which I had to rely heavily on these principals to help design the pictures.