Of the many types of perspective drawings, 1,2 and 3 point perspectives are most common. The numbers refer to the amount of vanishing points in your perspective drawing. If you look along a straight road, the parallel sides of the road appear meet at a point in the distance. This point is called the vanishing point and has been used to add realism to art since the 1400's in Florence, Italy.
One-Point Perspective:
One single vanishing point is typically used for drawing roads, railroad tracks, hallways or buildings when viewed from the front. Any objects that are made up of lines that are directly parallel with the viewers line of sight or directly perpendicular can be represented with 1 point perspective.
Two-point perspective can be used to draw the same objects as 1 point, but rotated. If you look at a house from the corner, instead of straight on as in 1 point perspective, one wall would recede towards one vanishing point and the other would recede towards the opposite vanishing point.
Three-Point Perspective:
This technique is usually used for drawing buildings as seen from above or below. In addition to the 2 vanishing points (one for each wall) there is a 3rd that shows how the walls recede into the ground. This 3rd vanishing point will be below the ground, if we were looking up at a building than that 3rd vanishing point would be up in the air.
OK, sound fun? No? Sounds hard? Well don't sweat it, Illustrator has some awesome tools for drawing in perspective. Illustrator has Perspective Grids. Go to VIEW/PERSPECTIVE GRID and then choose your one, two or three point perspective. AI also has a cool perspective tool that automatically tweaks your artwork or shapes into alignment with your chosen perspective.
Here is a great tutorial that shows you how to use AI's perspective tools.
Have fun!
- SW
