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Thursday, 17 April 2008
Horizon Line and Vanishing Points/Ligne d'horizon et points de fuite
A house in its setting, with the horizon line indicated.
Une maison dans son environnement, ligne d'horizon indiquée.
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Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Cliquer sur les images pour les aggrandir.
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How does perspective work?
I have been working on a painting that has been driving me crazy. In principle it depicts a man sitting at a desk reading the book. He's in a library, so there are lots of shelves and books behind him. The problem has been trying to make everything look as though it has a real underlying coherent construction - in other words, as though everything is in perspective.
I thought I had understood the rules of perspective, but with the humbling experience of this project, it looks like a new series of study notes on perspective will be appearing on my blog.
The Horizon Line
What happens when one settles to draw a simple little house in its setting? In fact, the vertical line representing the corner of the house nearest us is bigger than the two vertical lines representing the outside corners which are physically further from us.
Standing where we are, our eyes are on a level with the horizon, at least that is the case in the illustration here. So the first thing to do is to draw a light line representing that horizon line. The next thing is to draw that vertical line representing the corner of the house nearest us. And the third thing is to draw the two lines of bottom of the house out from that vertical line, to the left and to the right, at just the same angle as what is right in front of us.
Vanishing Points
If those two lines angling up are extended to the horizon line, two points of intersection are established: V 1 and V 2. These intersections are all "vanishing points" because they mark the end of the line vanishing towards the horizon into which disappears.
The direction these lines take changes logically when we change our position in relation to the subject; when we move, there is a different perspective, as shown in these illustrations.
Comment marche la perspective?
Je travaille un tableau qui me rend folle. En principe il montre un homme assis à un bureau qui lit un livre. Il est dans une bibliothèque, donc il y a plein d’étagères et de livres derrière lui. Le problème, c’est de le rendre comme s’il y avait une vraie construction cohérente – autrement dit, comme si tout est en perspective.
J’ai cru avoir compris les règles de perspective, mais avec l’expérience de ce tableau humiliant, il semblerait qu’une nouvelle série de fiches sur la perspective apparaîtra sur mon blog.
La ligne d’horizon
Qu’est-ce que se passe quand on s’installe pour dessiner une petite maison simple et son environnement ? En fait, la ligne verticale représentant le coin de la maison le plus prés de nous est plus grande que les deux verticales représentant les coins extérieurs qui sont plus loin de nous.
Debout où nous sommes, nos yeux sont sur le même niveau que celui de l’horizon, au moins dans l’exemple dans l’illustration ici. Donc la première chose à faire, c’est de dessiner un trait léger qui représente la ligne d’horizon. La chose ensuite, c’est de dessiner une ligne verticale qui représente le coin de la maison le plus proche de nous. Et la troisième chose, c’est de dessiner les deux lignes du soubassement de la maison, à partir de la première ligne verticale, à gauche et à droit, à précisément l’angle pareil avec ce que nous avons sous les yeux.
Points de fuite
Si ces deux lignes à un angle sont tirées vers la ligne d’horizon, deux points d’intersection sont établis : V 1 et V 2. Ces intersections sont des « points de fuite » parce qu’elles marquent la fin de la ligne fuyant vers l’horizon dans lequel elle disparaît.
La direction qui ces lignes suit change logiquement quand nous changeons notre position par rapport au sujet ; quand nous bougeons, il y a une perspective différente, comme démontré par ces illustrations.
13:00 Posted in Study Notes: Perspective /Fiches: La Perspective | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this | Tags: perspective, vanishing point, point de fuite, ligne d'horizon, horizon line
Comments
Hmmm..libraries!
Posted by: Roger Green | Monday, 21 April 2008
Hey! It's not a library! It's my study! Which happens to be lined with books.
Posted by: The man sitting at a desk | Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Roger, I believe you are a librarian. What is the future of libraries - are they destined to give way to electronic versions of material and reading rooms replaced by terminals ? Of course not immediately tomorrow morning, but over time will not that be their tendency ? Of course, if that happens, Deborah will have to find some other sort of linear and perspective-filled background.
Posted by: Mallard | Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Dear Bookish Gentry,
What could be more linear and perspective-filled than a study (or a library, for that matter) filled with computers? Although I have trouble imagining the Man Sitting At the Desk replacing his books with them...
Do you think cats could become squarish? I see I will have to put an image of the painting in question on public view here soon...
D.
Posted by: Deborah | Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Once upon a time, everything was going to be on microform (fiche, film).
There will always be libraries, and there will always be librarians, because there will always be print media, and audio media, and visual media and, yes, electronic media, and people to organize the chaos.
Posted by: Roger Green | Thursday, 01 May 2008