Learn to Paint in Perspective
Learn to paint in perspective with oils or acrylics.
This short lesson shows how you can train yourself to paint in perspective.
If you are confused about perspective then you need to spend some time thinking about the dimension lines.
Sit for a while and imagine dimension lines on buildings that you see.
It takes a little practice but you do need to force yourself to think about it.
That is, think and view how all the house roofs slope away in the same direction.
Eye things to see how they get smaller in the distance.
Hold a ruler at arms length and measure how much smaller things are in the distance. A house that is close might appear ten times bigger than a distant house.
You need to experiment and start the wheels of knowledge rolling.
This might all sound silly but you really do need to start somewhere with your thinking about perspective in a landscape painting.
Many people who have been painting for years have no idea where they are going wrong with there perspective.
I once saw a beautiful painting of a harbor with boats, the boat near was well proportioned. The very distant boat was much smaller in height but almost as long as the near boat. It would have been 2 kilometers long in real life, but nobody noticed except the judge.
In these 2 images you will see how to quickly learn about perspective by drawing construction lines over an image.
Note how all the lines come together at the focal point.
Try it and quickly learn about perspective drawing, it is fun.
Start drawing lines and you will start to understand how you can keep the items in your paintings in the correct perspective.
You must look at nature and man made objects in a way where you can compare there size to each other in various situations,
Watch for the differences in the tones of the same color as things move away from you.
Colors become dull as they move away.
We will discuss tones of colors in another lesson.
Read on and watch this video for more information to help you decide if you have good perspective in your drawings and paintings.
Watch this short video here, you may wish to watch it several times.
Try some perspective drawing showing the construction lines with pencil and paper.
Correct perspective in your painting or drawing can only be achieved by putting the correct shapes and tones of colors in order.
Roofs must slope at the right angle, paths must become more narrow as they move away, rivers should become wider in the foreground, clouds should be smaller in the distance, or in the lower sky.
All these little points will make your paintings look great to the trained eye.
Looking at your work in a mirror can often show where there might be a mistake with the perspective.
Don’t let the fear of making a mistake with your perspective stop you from enjoy painting.
Another lesson Horizon Line in Painting deals with the correct eye level is also an important part of refining the perspective in your paintings.