The Perspective: (5) DIVIDING SPACE, EXERCISES & CONCLUSION
In this final part of our perspective guide, we learn how to divide space regularly, analyze perspective in real photos, correct analysis exercises, review common mistakes, explore simple volumes built from the cube, and conclude the mini-guide.
Dividing the Space
A frequent operation when drawing human-made structures is to distribute “objects” regularly (windows, fence posts, railway sleepers).
There is a simple method to achieve this (but it is not valid in all cases).
Attention: This method is often presented incorrectly, even in books published by professional artists!
The principle is the following:
- Build a wall on which we want to place 4 windows of the same size.
- Divide this wall into two equal parts. This is easily done using the diagonals of the rectangle formed by the wall, since they intersect at their midpoint.
- Divide each half into two equal parts in the same way.
- Then place a first window… and copy it into each of the three other frames and it’s done.
The most important principle of perspective consists of using some simple properties of rectangle geometry and the fact that parallels in real life converge toward the same vanishing point on a conical perspective drawing.
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Observing Perspective on Photos
From the 4 following photos, you must find for each one its horizon line, its line of vision and its vanishing points — and more generally, recover its perspective.
It goes without saying that there are other notions in perspective that we do not address here.
Let us also not forget that a scene can contain several perspective systems at the same time… and that even buildings can present anomalies of verticality or horizontality, especially old buildings.
Correction of the First Two Analysis Exercises
Correction of the Last Two Analysis Exercises
The analysis seems quite simple. There is a vanishing point placed on the vertical passing through the center of the photo.
This therefore means that the view has a 3rd vanishing point (dissociation of horizon line / vision line)… but that there is no second vanishing point to complete the yellow vanishing point due to its centering.
There remains a problem with the blue vanishing line which does not converge with the green lines. We can assume that the ruin has moved a lot over time and is no longer vertical everywhere…
The analysis of the white dice is complicated because the edges of the cube have been chamfered (strongly rounded and made to disappear). So we will have to imagine the positions where these edges should be…
In addition, the “dots” on the dice are recesses for which we also need to fix the position of their “bottom”.
The analysis requires reflection to take advantage of all the available information.
Here, we clearly obtain two vanishing points on the horizon line and the 3rd vanishing point is indeed unique and we could easily verify that it is located on the vertical passing through the main vanishing point of the perspective.
Common Errors
Several errors are commonly made by painters and (more or less) beginner drawers:
- Drawing a cube with a front angle of the upper or lower faces making less than 90°, because the vanishing points are too close to each other.
- Placing on the same scene several vanishing points of one-point perspective.
- Drawing a non-horizontal horizon line with verticals…
- Making lines that are supposed to be parallel converge toward several vanishing points.
- Placing the 3rd vanishing point above the horizon line for a plunge view and the opposite for a counter-plunge view.
- Placing two 3rd vanishing points (one above the horizon line and the other below).
- Confusing the horizon line and the line of vision (which generally leads to an inverted construction as in point n°5).
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Check Price →End of the Mini-Guide. Thank you for reading! Practice these principles daily and your drawings will reach a new professional level of realism and depth.