Perspective Drawing Explained: 5 Perspective Drawing Exercises

Perspective drawing is a technique that gives the illusion of spatial depth, or perspective, to drawings and paintings. Perspective drawing, like foreshortening, gives the illusion of depth and makes work pop off of the page by using angled lines to suggest vertical lines and horizontal lines.

Perspective drawing is the foundation of many major works, including pieces by Filippo Brunelleschi (Sketches of Machines, c. 1430) and Leonardo da Vinci (Landscape of the Arno Valley, 1473). Brunelleschi is generally credited as the first artist to master perspective drawing. Leon Battista Alberti’s treatise De Pictura (On Painting) from 1435 articulated the methods of perspective drawing, which went on to influence Renaissance painting and architecture.

There are two main types of perspective drawing—linear perspective and atmospheric perspective:

• Linear perspective: Linear perspective relies on mathematics and straight lines to create depth. Think of an illustration of a railroad stretching toward the horizon—the railroad tracks, drawn in a “V” shape instead of parallel lines, narrow toward the background and close at the horizon to illustrate their length.
• Atmospheric perspective: Atmospheric perspective, also known as aerial perspective, uses color shifts and shading to show distance and depth. Consider a landscape painting in which the trees in the foreground are well-defined and vibrant in color while the mountains in the distance seem blurrier and less saturated.

To use linear and atmospheric perspective, you must understand the following terms:

1. 1. Vanishing point: In perspective drawing, the vanishing point is where two lines appear to meet in the distance. In a drawing of a railroad, it’s where the two lines of the tracks come together, representing a point beyond which the beholder cannot see.
2. 2. Horizon: The horizon is where the sky above meets the land or water below. The placement of the horizon in a work of art will affect where the vanishing point is.
3. 3. Vantage point: The vantage point is the point of view from which the scene is observed. An artwork’s vantage point, whether it is at eye level or looking upward or downward, dictates the height of the horizon.
4. 4. Values: Values are the light and dark hues of a composition that influence the illusion of depth, particularly in aerial perspective drawings.

While each of these drawing techniques builds on one other, they all employ similar factors to give perspective to artwork:

1. 1. One-point perspective: One-point perspective gets its name from the single vanishing point depicted in the art. An image of railroad tracks meeting at a vanishing point on the horizon line is in one-point perspective.
2. 2. Two-point perspective: This linear perspective features two vanishing points, often on opposite sides of the artwork on the far left and right. For example, if you draw a box at an angle, the two perpendicular sets of horizontal lines that make up its top edges recede to two different vanishing points.
3. 3. Three-point perspective: Also called multi-point perspective, three-point perspective adds in a third vanishing point. If you freehand draw a tall, triangular tower with the vantage point from the base upward, you can get a sense of three-point perspective. The top of the tower, as seen from below, will be one vanishing point, while lines from the bottom edges of the tower to the left and right will be the other two.

With some colored pencils and an eraser, you can use these five tutorials to better understand how to use perspective drawing in your artwork.

1. 1. Scattered rocks: To start off simple, sketch some rocks of varying shapes and sizes. To play with perspective, make the rocks close to the foreground be larger than those farther back. Give further perspective definition via a horizontal line drawn across (but not through) the rocks to represent your horizon. Add color and values: Your rocks at the foreground will be more defined and saturated. Those toward the back will be fuzzier. This example represents the power of atmospheric perspective while using size and line drawing to employ some linear perspective principles.
2. 2. Ascending castle: This example practices the single-point perspective. First, draw a horizontal line a quarter of the way up on your piece of paper. Toward the left, mark a small x on your horizontal line. Trace a 45-degree angle from that X toward the right, then sketch a three-tower castle below that line. The towers should ascend from small to medium to large the farther right you go with the tip of each tower meeting the 45-degree-angle line you drew.
3. 3. Floating cubes: This next example also practices single-point perspective without the need for perspective grid paper or a computer grid. On your piece of paper, choose your vanishing point somewhere slightly off-center. Mark it with a dot, and draw about a dozen lightly visible, evenly spaced lines through that dot. End with a horizon line that goes through that same dot. Next, draw items shaped like cubes (gift boxes, books, dice) on your piece of paper with their edges touching the lines. Draw boxes of various sizes; to feature depth, objects drawn above the horizon line will have their bases visible while ones drawn below it will have their tops visible.
4. 4. Sidewalk and cityscape: Sketching cityscapes make for easy two-point perspective exercises. Start by drawing a horizon line about a third the way up your drawing paper. Mark an X on opposite sides of your horizon; these will be your vanishing points. Then, from your left X draw a downward line at about a 15-degree angle. Do the same from your other marked X so that the lines drawn intersect to form a right angle. Where the two of the lines meet, create a street intersection. Along the edge of each street, draws rectangular prisms that resemble buildings whose edges align with the previously drawn lines.
5. 5. Triangular tower: To play with multi-point perspective, first draw a horizon line toward the bottom of your sketchbook with an X on the far left and another on the right. Then place one X toward the top at the center. You should now have a triangle of X’s. Draw a line to connect the top X to the horizon, forming a perpendicular angle. Make two other dots to divide that centerline into thirds, then connect those dots to the left and right vanishing points. Then, place some equidistant dots to the left and right of the center point on the horizon line; connect those dots to the top of the center vanishing point. Repeat these steps at various points of elevations and on the horizon line to create panels like a criss-cross of bricks and windows on your emerging triangular tower. Add in shading to accentuate tower entrances and windows. You can even use watercolors to create a blue sky background and a red brick building where one facade’s side is brighter than the other because of the imagined position of the sun.

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