Perspective and Depth
Perspective is where drawings most often contradict themselves. The exam does not demand a construction exercise, but it does demand a single consistent viewpoint: one eye level, one set of vanishing points, receding edges that agree. Examiners extend your lines mentally and see whether they meet on a common horizon.
Set the stage
- The horizon sits at your eye height and stays the same across the whole sheet. In a still life it usually crosses the background, not the objects.
- One-point: front faces stay parallel to the picture plane and all receding edges meet at a single point. Two-point: verticals stay vertical, two families of horizontals converge left and right. Three-point only when you look steeply up or down.
- Objects below eye level show their tops; objects above show their bottoms. Get this wrong and the drawing reads as tilted.
Circles and cylinders
- A horizontal circle becomes an ellipse whose minor axis is vertical in one-point view, or points toward the relevant vanishing point. The further the circle from eye level, the more open the ellipse; at eye level it collapses to a line.
Depth cues beyond construction
- Overlap, diminishing size, position on the sheet (lower is nearer), texture gradient, and atmospheric softening of distant edges.
Worked example
A box and a can on a table, eye level one third from the top. Draw the horizon lightly across the sheet. Keep the box's verticals truly vertical and send its two top edges to a left and a right vanishing point on that horizon. The can stands to the right: its top ellipse is more open than its base ellipse because it sits further below eye level, and its minor axis stays vertical. Check: extend the table's receding edge and the box's side edge - both must meet the same horizon. If they do not, adjust the edge, not the horizon.
Traps
- Two horizons in one drawing because table and objects were set up separately.
- Tilting verticals in a two-point view, so boxes look about to fall over.
- Drawing every ellipse with the same opening regardless of its height.
- Pointed, lemon-shaped ellipses instead of smooth symmetrical ones.