I DON'T CARE ABOUT PERSPECTIVE

I don't care about perspective!

Recently, a cityscape painting tutorial popped up on Facebook and I decided to have a look. It seemed to be going reasonably well and then I noticed how ‘off’  the perspective was becoming. Putting it mildly, it was really out.  It made me wonder how widespread this was so I went to Youtube and scrolled through more cityscape tutorials from various artists. Of the 12 I looked at, just one had bothered about perspective.

I could only conclude that no-one really cared about this aspect of urban painting. Either that or they hadn't heard of it which is hard to believe!

While these tutors seemed to be proficient in the application of paint, they missed out on teaching the first principles of simple perspective and I wonder how much they know about it. No matter how good the colours and tones are, if the perspective isn't close, the painting just won't look right.

The main problem with these paintings is with the perspective in the upper part of the work. This occurs a lot. It all starts with the horizon line - usually our own eye-line. The perspective close to the eye-line or horizon is okay, but as the buildings get higher the perspective doesn't converge on the vanishing point (see diagram).  This is partly due to lack of attention to detail.  But it’s also because of a misconception - "surely those perspective lines can't really be that steep?” which results in a tendency to make them shallower.

This perspective problem is easy enough to fix.  It can be resolved by a trip to the city and getting in among the buildings in the busiest street. You may not be able to see the horizon line and the vanishing point in the bustle but you can certainly work out where they are and be amazed at how everything leads to them.

 After this, it's simply a matter of being aware of your surroundings in everyday life - perspective is everywhere and it's fascinating!   Being interested in these things will make us better artists and we tend to be the best observers of life!

Perspective is often portrayed as difficult and involving lots of ruled lines but it isn't tru. Simple perspective is exactly that - simple.  Even without a ruler, perspective can be estimated with the stroke of a brush in the early stages of painting. Getting close is better than being way off!

Perspective is one of those things that, until the effects of error are seen, you never understand the strength of the truth.

Mike Barr.

The painting of Waymouth Street does not show exact perspective, but it is close enough to be believable. Note particularly that the perspective lines at the upper left are a little too shallow and it’s such a common problem! The green line is the horizon line and orange lines all lead to the vanishing point.