Perspective is used to represent the ways objects appear smaller or larger as they move farther into the distance or closer to the viewer. It adds depth and dimension to flat images. Perspective is what makes a painting seem to have form, distance, and look believable.

In art, there are multiple ways to achieve the illusion of distance in your paintings:

Atmospheric Perspective – The graying and cooling-off of distant shapes relative to near shapes.

Linear Perspective – Lines converging to a vanishing point in one-point, two-point, and multiple-point perspectives.

• One-point perspective consists of a single vanishing point and recreates the view when one side of the subject, such as a building, sits parallel to the viewer.
• Two-point perspective uses one vanishing point on either side of the subject, such as a scene in which the corner of a building faces the viewer.
• Multiple-point perspective works for a subject viewed from above or below. Three vanishing points depict the effects of perspective occurring in three directions.

Overlapping Shapes – Distant Shapes get covered up by closer shapes.

Foreshortening – Yet another type of perspective, makes something recede into the distance by compressing or shortening the width of the object.

Scenes that we are trying to paint are best captured when we understand there are many different types of perspective principles at work in a single scene.  Even the simplest woodland scene or floral still life arrangements will have one or two perspective principles at work. Seeing this at work in your scenes, and then understanding what and why it’s happening, will improve your shape making ability to paint the scene in a more believable and better-connected way.

A Few Tips:

The horizon line is the most important line of your composition. Most of the time, you’ll want to keep this level.

Placing your horizon line high on the panel will give you a more ground focused painting. Placing the horizon line low on your painting will give you a more sky focused painting.

Most of the time you’ll want to avoid placing the horizon line smack in the middle of your painting. It makes for a very balanced, sometimes boring, disconnected painting. Slightly above or below center will give you a more dynamic design.

The horizon line is also referred to as eye level. What that means is if you are standing and other people are walking into or out of your scene, all the eyes of every person in your painting will generally line up at the horizon line. Unless of course you have people sitting, standing on a ladder, or shorter or taller people in your scene, then a slight variation needs to be taken in placing these eyes. But generally, all the eyes line up at the horizon line.

Along with having a good 2D Design for your painting, also design the third dimension into the painting. Use one, two, or all four of these perspective ways to do that.

The closer you are to your subjects, i.e., building, tree, or objects, think about using a three-point perspective in the design. This will create a more dramatic experience for your design and for the viewer of your painting. Also, the lower or higher your horizon line is on your canvas, along with how close you are to your objects, will help in deciding whether to use three-point over two-point perspective.

Below is Don Yang’s painting of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House in Hyde Park, Chicago. Here, Don uses a two-point perspective design. I’ve included the scene as well as the painting to show how the person walking into the scene has an eye level with the horizon line. And because Don is standing while painting and taking this picture, Don’s eyes and the walking person’s eyes all line up at the horizon. Use this technique to find your horizon line. Now, if Don wanted to put people in this painting, he would make all their eyes line up on the horizon line, unless there’s a child or a slightly taller person in the scene.

Don Yang, Robie House, Oil, 9×12