One-Point Perspective

One-point perspective is the simplest system and a perfect place to start. It's used whenever you look straight at a scene: down a road, a railway, a corridor, into a room, at a building facade from the front.

How it works

You need a horizon line and one vanishing point on it. Then there are only three kinds of lines:

• Horizontal lines (parallel to the horizon) stay horizontal.
• Vertical lines stay vertical.
• Depth lines (going away from you) all converge to the vanishing point.

Drawing a box in one-point perspective

1. Draw the horizon line and the vanishing point.
2. Draw the front face as a simple rectangle (horizontal and vertical lines only).
3. From each corner of the front face, draw light lines to the vanishing point.
4. Decide the depth: draw the back edges as horizontal and vertical lines between those converging lines.
5. Erase the hidden lines (or keep them light).

Drawing a room

1. Draw the back wall as a rectangle, with the vanishing point inside it at eye level (about 1.6 m from the floor for a standing person).
2. Draw lines from the VP through the four corners of the back wall, out to the edges of the page: these are the edges where walls meet the floor and ceiling.
3. Add doors and windows on the side walls: their vertical edges stay vertical; their top and bottom edges go to the VP.
4. Add furniture as boxes.

Spacing things in depth

Equal distances in depth look smaller as they recede. To space floor tiles, fence posts or windows correctly, use the diagonal method: draw a rectangle in perspective, draw its diagonals to find the center, and draw a line through the center to the VP. Repeat to subdivide. To extend, a diagonal from a corner through the midpoint of the far side lands exactly on the next equal segment.