Understanding Linear Perspective

[Music] in this video we will be explaining linear perspective there are two kinds of perspective linear perspective and aerial perspective the two important features of linear perspective are objects appear smaller as their distance from the observer increases and foreshortening is to represent a line form or object as shorter than actual length in order to give an illusion of recession or projection in accordance with the laws of linear perspective let's look at the first feature objects appear smaller as their distance from the observer increases we can see all these lines in this airport converging on one point and that point that they converge to is called the vanishing point this point right here is the vanishing point and as you proceed along the lines toward the vanishing point objects appear to get smaller let's look at the people in this image who are all relatively the same size as you can see as we move into the distance toward the vanishing point the size of the people decrease considerably this man and this man if they were standing next to each other they're all the same size but as you can see they appear to get smaller and smaller as they move in to the vanishing point in other words they're all going to eventually vanish also now let's look at this building outside at first glance you wouldn't guess that all these lines point to the same spot but they in fact do we'll draw these lines along the side of the building and follow these lines and you can see that all of these lines point to one spot the vanishing point even up here in these towers just check this line here from here to the vanishing point it follows the lines now let's check the sidewalk from this point to there and sure enough the line follows the vanishing point now you'll also notice that the vertical lines on the building are perfectly plumb that means they go straight up even though the lines from the side of the building are pointing toward the vanishing point the vertical lines are still perfectly vertical or plumb so the vertical lines in a vanishing point perspective are not distorted now the vanishing point is on the horizon this line right here is the horizon this is what we call the true horizon now the visible horizon is where the trees meet the sky up here but the true arrives in is at eye level when you're looking at an object or an image I'll show you what I mean to determine the horizon line hold your brush at arm's length close one eye hold your brush level don't go higher and don't go lower hold it at eye level and look through the brush and you'll see the horizon line the true horizon line sometimes the visible horizon line will hide the true horizon line but the true horizon line will be right through your brush so here's the concept from a distance and looking through my brush into the distance and there's the vanishing point and these green lines would represent something like trees or people as the distance increases from the viewer to the vanishing point now here's what I mean by the visible horizon these points right here are the visible horizon line where the sky meets the ground but the true horizon line when I'm standing out in this field looking at eye level the true horizon line is going to be through these mountains so if I'm painting a building I want the perspective to be pointing out the true horizon line not the visible horizon line so I hold my brush out at eye level and right there is the true horizon line of course the true horizon line is much easier to see when you're looking at the ocean because it's completely and totally leveled so as you can see here the true horizon line is the water line another thing to remember the sky also is affected by perspective let's look at this landscape here's the horizon line put some mountains in the background your some trees that are obeying rules of perspective you can see the trees are getting smaller as they recede into the background toward the vanishing point let's put some perspective lines in the sky and notice how the clouds get bigger as they come towards you or conversely they get smaller as they're going away from you toward the vanishing point so the clouds also will diminish in size as they move toward the vanishing point many people will make big white clouds any size and put them in the sky and then they wonder why their landscape looks funny and it's because the sky does not have perspective in it so remember when you're painting clouds that they also diminish in size as they get further away from the eye now let's look at how perspective affects a building so this is single point perspective and this only works if you're standing directly in front of a building where the front of the building is square here's you here's the horizon line here's the vanishing point let's draw lines from each corner of the building to the vanishing point this is called single point perspective and then here's the building it appears to get smaller as it moves into the distance now let's talk about two-point perspective this would be if you were standing at the corner of a building and you were seeing a vanishing point going in two different directions you'll see what I mean when we draw this here's the corner of the building here's the mariah's in line is a vanishing point here and a vanishing point here you can see we're standing at the corner of this building it appears that the building is getting smaller as it moves toward the vanishing point in the distance this is a conflict for your brain because your brain knows the building is square on each side and yet it seems to be getting smaller as it recedes into the background so you have to believe the right side of your brain this time believe what you're seeing not what you know now let's look at a two point perspective but we'll raise our point of view up higher as if we're on top of another building looking down at this building so here's our corner of our building here's the horizon line notice the corner of this building is perfectly vertical here's the vanishing points vanishing point here and a vanishing point here now let's draw the other two corners of the building and you'll notice that they are also perfectly vertical they're not affected by the vanishing point now we draw lines from the top of the building to the vanishing point so now we're seeing the top of the building as well and remember each side of this building is square but it appears that it's getting smaller as it recedes toward the vanishing point so we end up with this box that we know is square on each side and the top but it doesn't appear that way here's a perfect square with four right angles each one of these corners is a perfect 90-degree angle and that's the way our box is each side and the top is square but that's not the way it appears so remember even your drawing you have to believe what you see not believe what you know the left side of the brain knows this box to be square on all sides but the right side of the brain is seeing it as it appears in fact we can separate each one of these sides there's not a single 90-degree angle on any of these angles pull our box over to check the right angle as you can see none of these angles is a right angle again it's a conflict for our brain because we know that the building is square on each side and the top and yet there's not a single right angle on it that we see so again this is just another lesson in learning how to see believe what your right brain sees when you're drawing don't believe what your left brain knows to be true now let's take a quick look at foreshortening do foreshorten is to represent a line form or object as shorter than actual length in order to give an illusion of recession or projection in accordance with the laws of linear perspective so this is going to be another conflict between the left and right side of our brain the left side of our brain knows how long this brush is but when we draw it as a foreshortened object it will appear to be very short in length that's from left to right so as you can see when we turn the brush sideways we see it's true in full length and our left brain is totally satisfied with that but when we turn our brush toward the camera it appears to be way too short our left brain does not relate to that at all in fact my left brain will try to get us to draw it longer than it actually is but again you have to believe what you see don't believe what you know to be true when you're drawing you draw what you see so that's a look at the very complicated subject of perspective it's not easy to understand so watch this video a few times and believe what you see and paint what you see rather than what you know to be true so thanks for watching and please subscribe and please click on the like button [Music]

Channel: Michael Lewis Art

Views: 175,003

Keywords: linear, perspective, Michael Lewis, Michael, lewis, art, artist, Learn, draw, drawing, Painting, paint, painting, book, author, books, tutorial, video, lesson

Id: on2FKHDsaCM

Length: 9min 58sec (598 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 25 2012