I have searched and searched for some decent and interesting sites offering information on perspective drawing and have only found one crummy one. Anyone out there that can point me in the right direction?
I went to NYIT on Long Island, and in their Architecture program was a handbook that demonstrated “perfect” persepective drawing (using plan & elevation drawings).
Well, it’s all done on CAD now, but looking at art school websites is a start…
Sorry Wrath, but I have no clue what CAD is, and of course I looked at ten jillion art, art schools, science lessons, ad nauseum, plus I have advanced training in the subject myself. What I’m trying to find are some interesting web sites that offer diagrams of various viewpoints , even severe “Superman” type layouts to keep the youngsters going, Whoa, way cool!!! If you can think of the name of your textbook, that would be great!
How about this? http://www.wetcanvas.com/ArtSchool/Drawing/RenBarn/barn01.html
Well, thank you Merlot! That is a very helpful site, indeed! See we now have a gizmo at scholl that allows us to put the computer image on the TV screen so the whole class can see it. Thanks!!! Anyone else?
Try checking architectural rendering sites. They use perspective more frequently than ‘fine’ artists.
Also, I note you ask for textbook names. Any decent library should have scads of perspective books not to mention any large book store.
And by the way, CAD stands for Computer Aided Design. It’s what most technical drawings are done on, anymore, rather than the good ol’ drawing board. There’s a few programs out there for the PC, but be warned: A full CAD program will cost in the neighborhood of a few hundred dollars.
If you are looking for books, try “Architectural Graphics” by Francis D. K. Ching. Heck, buy all of his books. He is excellent.
AutoCAD, IMHNSO the best (or at least one of the best), costs $375 if you can prove you’re a student in a drafting/engineering/etc. program, and well over $1000 for everyone else.
Of course, you don’t need a full CAD program, and there are a few free 3D programs around that naturally do perspective.
Take a look at http://www.povray.org or http://www.bmrt.org/
The Povray site has lots of modellers and other tools. I haven’t looked much at BMRT, but many people swear by it.
The nicest thing for your situation is that either one lets you move the camera around to show what happens in different views.
I don’t think you’ll find any decent instructional material on the internet. The graphics are too small and too crude to effectively convey the subtleties of a fine perspective drawing.
You haven’t said what you need this material for. Do you want to learn to make fine-art perspective drawings? Do you need to make technical drawings? Do you need to teach an art class? These all might require different materials.
I studied perspective in art school, which was considered a really weird thing to do back in the late 1970s. The book I learned the most from was just called “Perspective Drawing” and here’s a reference:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1559346973/qid=969854222/sr=1-3/104-6156035-0951147
This book uses reproductions from perspective books dating back to the Renaissance, you will learn it the same way artists have been learning it for hundreds of years, by studying the work of other artist, with explanations of how the effects work.
There is another series called “Basic Perspective” and “Advanced Perspective” which are probably the definitive books on the subject and the easiest to learn from, but my copies are in storage and I can’t get at them to give you a cite. Sorry.
That is a very interesting step-by-step process to produce a drawing. Unfortunately, it has a few procedural errors that will produce incorrect perspective drawings. Very sloppy work.
Thank you everyone for your input, we have already started creating some amazing one point perspective from above the city, here at ye olde elementary school art class.