Figure: what is the perspective?

Before moving on to the question of what a prospect is, the first thing worth paying attention to is the meaning of the word. It came from the Latin "perspicere", in translation - "to see clearly". This expression is used both to denote a better future for a person or situation, and to display depth in the visual arts. The principles of understanding the second option were laid by the architect Brunelleschi from Italy. Since the end of the XV century, the objective image as a result of visual distortion of magnitude and volume, as well as shadows is called perspective. In other words, the perspective in the figure conveys the subject image in real visual perception.

The concomitant term in the visual arts is the "horizon". In the visual arts, this concept is not something new. As always, the true horizon is the visual line of contact of the Earth (or the sea) with the sky. An important aspect for this term in the figure is the location of the horizon at eye level.

A simple understanding of the outlines of objects in the future is taught as early as the preschool age: everything that is further in the figure is of a smaller size. What is the perspective, you can see visually by the example of a road or an iron track. On the roadside the roads converge to one point. With the removal of the route to the horizon, the columns, the lanterns along its edges become shorter, thinner, proportionally smaller in all parameters. Similarly occurs with other objects and phenomena in the everyday world. If you extend all the horizontal lines, they will converge on the horizon line.

The term "point of descent" refers to a place where all the lines distant from us converge parallel to the horizon. It should be noted that if you look at a cube at an angle of 90 degrees (on one of its sides), then this side will not be subject to a prospective reduction (since its entire plane is at the same distance from our eyes). If we turn the cube to us one of the faces, then the two sides will immediately be affected by the prospective reduction. In this case the vanishing points are already two.

The object can be located on the horizon line, either below or above it. A horizon is a conventional line, an object that is closer (in the foreground) is larger. Accordingly, it covers part of the horizon line.

We continue to consider this on a subject of a cubic or oblong form, if the object is on the horizon line, comes into contact with it. As shown in the figure, we can not see the top, bottom side, just like the two further ones. Let's note one more thing: by bringing the object closer to the foreground, you can see that the points of descent approach each other, making the lines of descent steeper. Accordingly, by postponing, - all the way around. If the object is above the horizon line, the visible sides are three, the connection points of the descent are, as before, two.

What is the perspective, how to convey it in the drawing, is subconsciously understood by many. Having understood the concept of "perspective" in the picture, everyone can more competently transfer the location and scale of objects in space, for example, the arrangement of cabinets after repairs or windows in the extension to their own house.

Next, we will analyze how to draw perspective in complex objects. By the principle of the foregoing, to all protruding corners (details) the rule is applied: the object below the horizon, the points of descent are closer and the angles of descent are steeper. Another important aspect for the drawing of the room: the horizon for the object is one, but the vanishing points for each object in the drawing can be two (on one line, strictly for this composition).

So, we figured out what the prospect is, but to fully transfer the idea of what we saw, we need another tool - a shadow. To do this, we define the light source, then find the lowest corners of the structure. We extend the lines of the descent of these angles to the edges of the picture and, as we move away from the construction, we decrease the intensity of the shadow. The farther the object is from the horizon and from the light source, the shade is longer.

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