“One Point Perspective – Art” by Joan Y. Edwards

When I was in college at Western Carolina University, I took a few art courses. In one of them the instructor taught us one point perspective. We went outside and painted different buildings from across the street in one point perspective. My sister, Janet, says she still has those drawings. It’s amazing that watching You-Tube videos can refresh your memory and also give you new techniques to help you improve your drawing of things in perspective. I listed resources I personally liked that teach you one point perspective.

Definition: What is perspective?
Helen South states that “Perspective drawing gives a three-dimensional feeling to a picture. In art, it is a system of representing the way that objects appear to get smaller and closer together the further away they are in the scene.”

Things seem to get farther and farther away until they vanish at a point. Many times that point is near the middle of the page, but doesn’t have to. If you’re looking down the street, objects closer to you look larger than the objects farther away from you.

Here are a few other images that show you one point perspective:

Notice how everything seems to lead to one particular point in the images near the back of the picture. Everything close to you looks bigger and items farther away get smaller.  With the trees you can see more of he front tree than you can of the others. You can see more of the buildings that are closer to you, than the ones that are farther away.

Here are hints for drawing in one point perspective:

• Make all diagonal (slanted) lines so that they come from the single dot vanishing point. The Vanishing Point marks where you stop seeing separate diagonal lines going away from you. It looks like they come together there. It makes things look smaller as they get farther away from your eyes. It makes things look larger as they get closer to your eyes. In other words, these diagonal lines that look like an upside down V help you see things on the page in perspective.
• All straight lines across will be parallel with the horizon line.
• All straight up and down (vertical) lines will be parallel with the right and left side edges of the paper.

Activities
Materials You’ll Need:  8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper, a ruler, a pencil, and a white eraser. 
If you are drawing a room in one point perspective, here is one way to begin:

1. Draw a line from the top left hand corner to the lower right hand corner of your paper.
2. Draw a line from the top right hand corner to the lower left hand corner of your paper.
3. Draw a straight line across the middle of the page. This will be your horizon line.
4. Mark a dark dot in the middle of the horizon line. You can use a red colored pencil to help it stand out. This dot is called your vanishing point. 
5. If you want, you can draw a rectangle to represent the wall at the far end of the room or hall.
6. Now draw the hallway or room in detail with pictures on walls, desks, chairs, and doorways or windows.  Good luck😊!

If you are drawing a street scene, road, or railroad track scene, you might want to start with these directions:

1. Draw a straight line across the page close to the middle of the paper. This will be your horizon line.
2. Draw a dot near the middle of the page. This will be your vanishing point.
3. Decide how far apart you want your up-side-down V-shaped diagonal lines. Draw two diagonal lines that go from the vanishing point to the bottom of the page so that they are wider at the bottom.
4. Draw the other items. Any slanted line will go through the vanishing point. The straight lines will be horizontal or vertical.

Exercises

1. Print out one of the three pictures above or another one point perspective image from your own personal photo collection. Trace it or draw it using pencil and ruler. Be sure to note your horizon line and vanishing point, as well as the slanted, diagonal lines that all lead to the vanishing point.
2. Sit in your front yard and sketch what you see in one point perspective.
3. Sketch a hall scene from your house. Take a picture of it and draw it or sit at one end of the hall and draw it.
   
4. Sketch a garden scene in one point perspective.

Resources
Graph Paper – Grid Paper

1. Graph Paper Perspective. You can choose the size paper and how many inches you want the lines to be apart, etc. https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/perspective/
2. Printable Paper.net. Free to print. One Point Perspective guide lines on paper
   https://www.printablepaper.net/category/perspective
   

Written Step-by-Step with Images and Text

1. Amiria Gale. “One Point Perspective Drawing:” http://www.studentartguide.com/articles/one-point-perspective-drawing
2. Drawing Coach.com. “1 Point Perspective Drawing – Lesson 2 How to Draw a Circle:” http://www.drawingcoach.com/1-point-perspective.html
3. Helen South.  “How to Draw One Point Perspective:” https://www.thoughtco.com/one-point-perspective-drawing-tutorial-1123412

Videos on You-Tube

1. Fletcher Ceramics. “Easy 1 Point Perspective.” (brick building on a street)
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFmek_sesfo
2. Matt – Virtual Instructor. “One Point Perspective.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYBMr5MKoo
3. Melinda Nguyen “One Point Perspective – Streetscape:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phiEaRGBv-4
4. Milton Kaynes You-tube Channel. “How To Draw A Room with One Point Perspective:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30tzJG6EOTo
5. Otis Art Docents. “Lesson 5B – One Point Perspective.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twcFW0RyOO8
6. Tom at Circle Line Art School. “How to Draw 1-Point Perspective for Beginners: A Hallway:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ICyLN6I2cY
7. Tom at Circle Line Art School. “How to Draw a House in One-Point Perspective.”
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i776k0zEzEc
8. Tom at Circle Line Art School. “How to Draw a Room in One-Point Perspective.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEymIyLbiAI
9. Tom at Circle Line Art School. “How to Draw Using One Point Perspective: (Railroad Track)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRrKohWdpeQ

Thank you for reading my blog. I appreciate you very much. I’d love to hear from you. 

What? You’re not subscribed to my blog? Receive free gifts. Subscribe now. Join 700,000 visitors. You’ll be sent an email to confirm your subscription. Thank you.

Name

Email*

Live with Enthusiasm
Celebrate Each Step You Take

Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards, Author
Copyright © 2017 Joan Y. Edwards
Flip Flap Floodle Will this little duck’s song save him from Mr. Fox?
Joan’s Elder Care Guide A guide to help caregivers and elders find solutions.