The Law Of Perspective: Two Point Perspective

Two point perspective is a bit more complicated than on point so for those who have read The Law of Perspective: One Point Perspective, you should be following along quite well. For Those who haven't, look at my previous post.

Two point perspective is basically the same a one point, except that there are now two vanishing points. I have heard many people say that two point perspective looks a bit strange, and that is because of two reasons. First of all, anything in two point perspective is almost always in a 3/4 view. Second, it is stretched by two vanishing point so that if you cover up one or the other vanishing point, it would still look correct.

Again, the example.

Try covering up the perspective lines on one side of the box, then the other.

By looking at only one perspective, the box seem correct in shape but looking at both

perspectives at the same time makes it kind of distorted.

Try looking at buildings from a street corner. you'll see two point perspective.

The Law Of Perspective: One Point Perspective

What is perspective? In art, it is the distance between the point on an object that is closest to you and the vanishing point at the horizon line. If you had a rectangular box and you put if flat on the ground, you would see that the surface closest to you seems bigger that the surface that is further, that is because you are now looking at the box in perspective.

One point perspective is the simplest of all perspective because there is only one vanishing point. Regardless of the position, the lines of the box will connect to only one vanishing point. Think of it as standing on a strait path and looking into the distance. The path will become more and more narrow the further you look.

Here is an example, my description is only so-so.

You see how the upper line of the box closest to you seems longer than the upper line furthest from you?

Here's that path I was talking about.

The Color Wheel

Ever wonder what art would be without colors? It would be quite boring. Ever tried painting something but ended up with bad results because you had used an incorrect color mix? This color wheel is the solution to those problems.






The color wheel, showing the primary colors in their warm and cold shades, along with their mixes.








As you see above, all three primary colors have a cold shade and a warm shade. Avoid mixing warm colors with cold ones so that your color remains pure. Cold plus cold equals cold, and vise versa.

Each color ususaly has a small amount of biased color, meaning it contains another color in it. Understanding what bias is in each color helps you make a correct mix, therefore not obtaining dirty color.
A good rule of thumb would be to avoid mixing three primary colors, EX cold red(Alizarin Crimson) containing blue, mixed with cold blue(Ultramarine Blue) containing red would give you a pure purple. On the other hand, mixing cold red(Alizarin Crimson) containing blue with warm blue(Phtalocyanine Blue) containing yellow would mean a dirty color for you have mixed three primary colors: yellow, red, and blue.