Perspective Drawing is a technique used to represent three-dimensional images on a two-dimensional picture plane.

It was developed in the 15th century by the architects, Leon Baptista Alberti (1404-72) and Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446). For 500 years, perspective drawing remained one of the basic principles of Western art until it was challenged by the ideas of the Cubists at the start of the 20th century.

Whether you are working with conventional materials such as pencils and paints, or contemporary digital media, a knowledge and understanding of perspective drawing is an essential tool to help enhance your drawing technique.

There are two elements in perspective drawing:

Linear Perspective which deals with the organisation of shapes in space, and

Aerial Perspective which deals with the atmospheric effects on tones and colours.

You can see both of these elements above in our illustration of some ancient ruins.

The black and white image displays an example of Linear Perspective. It shows some of the lines of construction used to arrange the blocks and columns to create an illusion of depth and distance.

If you mouse over the black and white image it should reveal a coloured and textured version of the scene. This displays the atmospheric effects of Aerial Perspective. You can see how the tones weaken and the colours pale as they recede from your view.

Both linear and aerial perspectives combine to create this convincing illusion. However linear perspective will be our main focus of study in the rest of this unit on perspective drawing.