Perspective Vocabulary

Horizon line- is always at eye level. Picture yourself at the seashore and looking out at the ocean you notice that the water meets the sky at your eye level. This never changes. You may be in an airplane 1000 feet up and the level that the ocean meets the sky is still at your eye level! Or you may be lying down on the beach and the ocean level drops with you. Think of it as an invisible plane that cuts through everything, that always exists at eye level.

Hint: Your horizon line always falls at eye level regardless of where you're looking. For instance, if you are looking down, your eye level remains at the height of your eyes, not down where you are looking.

Vanishing Point-is the point to which all lines which are parallel to the viewer recede. You may want to think of the last time you were looking down a long stretch of straight highway. The edges of that highway appear to move at an angle upward until they meet the horizon. In one point perspective all verticals and horizontals stay the same and only lines that are moving away from or toward the viewer seem to recede on the horizon at the vanishing point.

Hint: All planes must be perpendicular or parallel to you in order for this system to work correctly. If you are looking at the corner of an object that is not at a 90 degree angle to you this will create distortions!

Convergence Lines (also called orthagonals)-are lines that converge at the vanishing point. These are any lines that are moving away from the viewer at an angle parallel to the direction that the viewer is looking. In the case of the highway that we mentioned above these lines would be the edges of the highway as they move away from you forward into the distance.

An example of convergence lines as they recede can be found in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's, Fantasy on a Magnificent Triumphal Arch, from 1765. If you look carefully at the side of the building, you will notice that the bricks and other diagonals on the triumphal arch are a series of convergence lines that change in relation to the horizon line. The line that is closest to the horizon line will be almost flat and lines higher up will have a greater angle downward as they get further away from the horizon line. You can see where Piranesi has left some of his convergences go beyond the building directed toward the vanishing point.

In one point perspective all horizontals and verticals do not change. Objects that are above the viewer's horizon line are viewed from underneath (they are above your vision). Objects that are below the viewer's horizon line are viewed with their tops showing. Any object that straddles the horizon line, does not show top or bottom because these are obscured from the viewer. Remember that this system will only work if you are parallel and perpendicular (90 degree angles) to the objects that you are drawing.

If you examine Vermeer's Little Street, you will notice that all the diagonal lines appear to recede to a point within a window on the second floor of the building in the center of the painting. This indicates that the artist's eye level was also above street level. Probably looking out a second floor window across the street. Look at how the chimnies on the left hand side of the painting all line up to create a diagonal which leads to the vanishing point. Even the cobblestones in the street adhere to this rule