Drawing One-Point Perspective

Drawing one-point perspective is an easy skill to learn with impressive results. By following a few rules, you can easily create realistic depth while drawing both interior and exterior spaces. "One-point" means there is one vanishing point, or one spot on the horizon towards which all vertical lines converge, while the horizontal lines remain parallel. Think of looking down railroad tracks: as the tracks approach the horizon, the metal rails appear closer to one another until the edges appear to touch, while the wooden planks stay parallel. The spot where the edges touch, even if it is out of view, is the vanishing point.

  Example of one-point perspective

The first step to drawing one-point perspective is to draw the horizon line and place the vanishing point. Sometimes the horizon and vanishing point aren't visible, like if you're drawing an interior space, but it's still important to know where they are.

 Step 1: Draw horizon line and vanishing point.  Image: about.com

Next, draw a rectangle, making sure it has right (90 degree) angles. Then using a ruler extend lines from each corner to the vanish point.

Draw the rest of the edges of the rectangle, making sure they meet at right angles. 
Finally, erase the unecessary lines.

Above is an example of a transparant box, but many of the objects you'll draw, such as buildings, will be opaque, like in the example below.Now that you have the basics, try adding more rectangles to the composition.

 
Before you know it, you have a whole city. NOTE: doors and windows follow the same rules - they're just smaller rectangles. Same goes for cars on the street or objects in an interior space.

 One of the most famous examples of one-point perspective is Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper, 1494-1498. Notice how all of the lines converge towards Christ's head. Leonardo used the one-point perspective technique to give the interior space depth, but also to direct the viewer's eye towards an important part of the image.

Allison Recht

 

 
 

 

Comments

[Andrew]

Very interesting post. It is not so easy to draw one-point perspective as it look like. This drawing requires very much concentration.

[Used Cell Phones]

One-point perspective drawing can rather be called the convergence perspective as the lines appear to converge at a common point. The rails are the best example as they appear to meet at a point but actually they don't.

[Cory Cook]

That is pretty cool how you can draw it and make it look 3d. I used to draw those cube drawings all the time growing up. Leonardo Da Vinci's painting is awesome, I always liked that painting.