| Perspective Exercises 1 |
| Perspective is an important concept that every artist should understand. Through the use of perspective, an artist is able to present three-dimensional images on his two-dimensional canvas. The Dutch artist M.C. Escher did some great perspective studies, and I have shown some examples of of his work on this page to illustrate the power of perspective. |
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| Escher, Three Worlds |
| Escher, Ascending and Descending |
| When I first saw this sketch, I thought it was a view of a street as you looked out a window. Then I noticed that Escher had placed the street and the table on the same plane in a surrealistic theme. All the objects on the table in the foreground appear larger than the street itself as if you were really looking out a window, showing perspective, with objects closer to the viewer appearing to be larger. Also note that the street becomes more narrow in the distance and the buildings become closer to each other, again showing perspective to a vanishing point in the distance. |
| Escher, Street |
| Escher, Delft |
| Escher, Tower of Babel |
| The taper to show perspective in this sketch is even more extreme because the height is much greater. The illusion is so good that looking at the picture could give you a feeling of vertigo. |
| Escher, Drawing Hands |
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| In the drawing on the left Escher makes the background look distant by drawing similar- sized leaves on the water that are farther away smaller. This is a basic principal of drawing in perspective. More distant objects of similar size are drawn smaller and this gives the illusion of depth to your drawing. You have made a two-dimensional canvas appear to be three-dimensional |
| In the drawing at the right Escher gives the illusion of depth by using "perspective lines" to show a taper to the building. We know the base of the building is at least as large as the sides, but the taper along "perspective lines" provides the illusion that you are up high and looking down on the building. That is the power of perspective. |
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| In the drawing at the right the height is not as great,and so the taper of the buildings is less extreme, but the taper does give you the feeling that you are looking down on the street from above. |
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| Although the Escher drawing above does not illustrate perspective, hands are difficult to draw correctly. Escher does an excellent job at this task with his surrealistic drawing where each hand is drawing the other. |
| The other pages on this site will illustrate how "perspective lines are used to draw objects in their proper perspective. |
| To see more of the work of M.C. Escher, there is an excellent Spanish site at http://www.geocities.com/mcescher76. Just click on |
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| The music is "Homeward Bound" by Simon and Garfunkel |
| the link to the right. |