In
drawing and painting we have to present to the viewer a realistic scene,
especially in traditional painting.
If we are looking at two trees of the same height, but one further away, they appear on the retina of the eye as different size and we paint the scene as we see it. When a person views our artwork, we are trying to kid them that they are looking through our paper to that scene. If we get the perspective wrong the scene can become awkward and put a strain on the viewer’s eye
retina
artwork
In the diagram below is a simple house drawn with perspective lines. The main horizontal line is at eye level, normally you can decide on this being three quarters up a standard doorway. All the lines finish on this line, at the two vanishing points on each side. Notice lines below the eye line go up, those above go down. The chimneys, windows and height of the building recede in both directions.
There is another type of perspective we have already touched on. This is colour perspective or aerial perspective as it is sometimes called. It is that phenomenon which with distance, things take on a blue hue, the greater the distance the more bluish the objects become. It is a common mistake we all make when we begin to paint, we have fixed ideas of an objects colour and try to paint as such, like trees are green, remember not at a distant they are not.