Intro to One Point Perspective landscape drawing Mrs. Moore May 2012

Step 1. Draw a horizon line  The horizon line separates the land from the sky.  To see the effect of the placement of the horizon line, click hereclick here  For the demo, place it in about the middle.

Step 2. Add a vanishing point  The vanishing point is where many of the diagonal lines point toward, which creates believable 3- D space.  Place the vanishing point on the horizon line (toward the middle for the demo)

Step 3. Adding a road  Line up your ruler with the vanishing point and the right edge of the page, draw a diagonal line  Line up your ruler with the vanishing point and the left edge of the page, draw a diagonal line

Step 4. Adding an intersecting road  To create the illusion of an intersecting road, you will need to create a set of parallel horizontal lines.  Keep in mind that placement of these lines is important. The closer to the front- the larger the road.  Erase the lines in the middle where they intersect. Road further away = lines closer together Road closer = lines further apart

Telephone poles

Step 1. Right bottom guideline  Add a line that comes from your vanishing point along side the road on the right.  This will be the bottom guideline for the pole

Step 2. Right top guideline  Add a line that starts at the vanishing point and goes above the horizon line toward the right top corner.  This will be the top of your pole.  This helps keep the poles in proportion, and gives the illusion that the poles are the same size- just getting bigger as they get closer.

Step 3. Adding the poles  The poles go in between the guidelines as vertical lines that are parallel to the side of the paper.  The lines should be closer together further away and get wider as they get closer to the viewer.

Step 4. Rounding the poles  The tops and the bottoms of the poles don’t end in triangles.  Use arc lines like smiles and frowns to round off the top and bottoms.  Use the guideline as a starting point to keep them in proportion.

Step 5. Adding horizontal crossarms  Crossarms hold the wires for the poles.  The first pole (which is only one line) will have one horizontal line to show the crossarm set.  The second and third pole have two rectangles to show the crossarm.  Placement is crucial to keep proportion and symmetrical balance (same on one side as the other)  Consider using the guideline to help place them by looking at the triangular shape (green) made by the first one. The triangle should get larger as it comes closer.

Step 6. Adding the wire  Erase the guidelines, etc. so that you just have the pole. (the bottom guideline also shows how to make a sidewalk)  The wire will only be on the right side of the pole.  Make sure to go between the arms from behind and overlap the pole to go to the next one.  After the last one, make the wire go off the paper.

Creating a house

Step 1. Create a 2-D house  On the area opposite the telephone poles, draw a square/ rectangle with triangle on top.

Step 2. Making the house 3-D  Three points go to the vanishing point  Top of the triangle  Point where triangle meets rectangle  Point where rectangle meets ground

Step 3. Cutting down the house  Line the ruler up with the side of the rectangle. Slide it down to desired size, and draw a line between the bottom line and the middle line.  Line up the ruler with the side of the triangle. Slide it to meet with the line just drawn, and draw a line at the same angle as the triangle.  Erase the lines not needed.

Step 4. Adding Windows and Doors on front  Windows and doors on the side facing us are not effected by the vanishing point.  Windows on the side are effected by the vanishing point.

Adding Windows to the side (step 1)  Start with a vertical line that is parallel to the original rectangle line.

Adding windows to the side (step 2)  Take the top and bottom of the vertical line to the toward the vanishing point.  No need to go off the wall, as windows are on the wall.

Adding windows to the side (step 3)  Line up your ruler with original vertical line, and slide it down to cut the one window into two.  Draw the lines between the two lines that went toward the vanishing point.  Erase the parts you don’t need.