1 Point Perspective

Let's discuss one point perspective for a moment.

Simple perspective is one of the first actual lessons you learn in an art class. You probably have memory of it still, from elementary school, where you drew an isosceles triangle of a road that quickly came to a vanishing point - as with the power lines you might have drawn, or the row of perfect trees at the side of the road. It looked bizarre and unnatural despite following all the rules.

That's right. All two of them:

1. Objects closer to the viewer appear larger.
2. All parallel lines intersect at the vanishing point on the horizon line.

However, every once and a while there is an instance where these rules actually apply in a really obvious way and that triangle world happens - but it happens pretty much always in architecture.

Image found through Google Images

You can even draw all the lines, you'll see that it follows the rules. Hell, I'll do it for you:

All of the parallels taper into the singular vanishing point, obscured nicely by the light at the end of the hallway and salvaging this image from the depths of some sort of architectural Uncanny Valley. The pillars are larger closer to the viewer, so are the boxes, as are the doorways...

All the rules apply!

...But this is really blah.

Like, really blah.

Because this is so damn blah, I came up with a couple tips to shake things up! Make it more visually interesting. Just keep these things in mind when you do your thumbnails, and one point perspective can look pretty decent.

It gets pretty triangular if you don't. And I hate that. It makes it unrealistic to me, because when I look off into the distance, there is so much more detail by that vanishing point than I can cram in to a thumbnail. Hiding it or blocking it from view with something fairly mid-ground is a quick fix for that problem.

If it's just architecture, there is absolutely nothing to contrast the straight lines. Trees, shrubs, plants, statues... nice organic shapes are cool too - don't be hatin'. Throw in some nature!

Like in the previous examples, you can move the horizon line to extremes on your image. Play around with it! If you're not having fun, you're wasting your time.

Not only that, don't worry about using parallel horizontal lines on the image. I know it's fun to fiddle with all those angles, but if it's just those angles, you're going to get that triangle world with no effort at all. A lack of perspective can balance out all the angles in an image. Try it out!

5 Inspiring Images

Am being encouraged to blog regularly on blogger specifically for a design class, despite my many, other outlets for posting my work and socially networking (and also asinine thoughts as they occur, in approximately 120 characters or less) but I digress.

Runaways 30 - by Jo Chen

I'll start off by sharing an image that I found - and still find - so inspiring. It's an image that I want it to get a portion of tattooed on myself sometime in the near future (1-2 years), due to concepts I could elaborate on for pages and pages. In an attempt to be concise, here's one (sort of):

It isn't the figure in the front holding the staff that catches my eye, it's always the character facing away from the viewer. My eye is directed straight to his arm, the electric charge being the most bright, saturated, and distracting part of the largely sepia-toned piece. While the woman in the front is probably the focus of the image, she lacks the vibrancy to properly and equally offset the electricity to guide the eye.

Now, you might wonder, "Well, if you see this as improperly focused, then why does it inspire you so much?"

But that is precisely why. To me it's due focus despite place, because that turned away character has always been, in my eyes, the shining star in the ensemble cast of Runaways. So, in this image - just as in the series - he stands somewhat in the background, not the main focus but eye-catching nonetheless. 

Catwoman 64 - by Adam Hughes

Here we have another comic book cover, but inspiring for altogether different reasons. While the former image represents to me a larger concept, this cover - as I have not read the series or even the issue that this cover represents - is something I admire purely on (what I perceive as) technical excellence. 

The darker elements are what your eye is drawn to instead of the light ones, with the woman in the centre with the walls that frame her on each side. Though the negative space is bright and detailed, it fades to obscurity in the background.

The mood of this cover is nothing short of sublime, invoking the feelings of coldness and solitude associated with both the dead of winter and the middle of the night.

In the same vein, I also find Catwoman 65 a remarkable sample of Adam Hughes' work.


I can dig up endless comic book covers that inspire me (a bunch of Jock covers immediately come to mind, oh boy), but for diversity's sake, I'll start branching out and into other subjects:


The Rococo Period

Ostentatious is the word that immediately comes to mind when I look at furniture, rooms, and architecture from the rococo period - decadent, intricate in design, elegant in execution, and always unique.

Everything about these rooms and their detailing screams custom made; nothing about it seems cookie-cutter or factory produced, despite the constantly repeated motifs of gold leaf flourishes and pastel-coloured damask. There is care and richness put into everything about these places, a regal warmth about them that I can't see replicated in any other architecture.

Admittedly, I find a lot of architecture lifeless and boring, but this is the exception because this isn't architecture - this is art.


Familiar Wilderness

Dirt trails with roots raised to playfully trip the unattentive; large, mossy rocks like icebergs in the earth - mostly unseen beneath the surface; leaves scattered haphazardly by wind; peeling, sunburnt arbutus trees; windy, rocky, sandless shores... these are the sorts of trails I wandered as a kid, so these are places that my mind wanders to for comfort.

And, last but not least:


Rock Stars

... Rock stars are my fashion idols.

Do I want massive quantities of pseudo-goth bling and ridiculous anime hair? Absolutely.