Somebody mention a perspective challenge? Here you go then. We'll start with something really simple.

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This is a one point perspective challenge. To make things easy, because this is a seascape (sort of) and you can see the horizon, that is your eye line. Everything converges into one vanashing point, so that should help as well. Just in case you are struggling, you can peek at this.

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Good luck!

hey that is a great one to try..I shall give it a go when i finish my house..

I'll take a ruler to work with me and give it a go.. LOT'S of lines in this one..!!!
How did you draw the blue lines on your reference picture > do you have a program that does that ?

Cool. I wished there were more pictures in this challenge to choose from.

Lets keep it simple.

I use Flash to put the lines on. I'm sure you could use aother applications! I just find flash easy to use.

How did you build second image starting from first picture?

After I get home from work I will post this rather ridiculous attempt at this Pier.. OMG .. I will stick with portraits and such .. add one more thing to my list of I can't wrap my brain around.. !!
Could it be my dyslexia is getting worse with age ? what a mess .. you'll see.

..carol, i have been drawing lines the wrong way for days now

I swear if I wasn't so frustrated I'd laugh my backside off.. What looked like something simple enough I found out right quick My pier just went from Texas to England ,, Ya'll ever see such a long pier ?
Yup No need in telling me .. Carol this aint your thang !!

that looks pretty darn good to me, course i am cockeyed apparently

Well, the pier doesn't look all that long... but you seem VERY tall! Or you're floating above the pier...
Point being, the perspective is good, but your drawing doesn't have the same viewpoint as the picture.

Actually, its not such as easy picture as it might first appear. The way its been photographed (with a wide angle lens) does tend to make it look as if it spans the Atlantic.

And its a bit difficult to get our bearings on exactly what's happening at the far end, where it does sort of look like its going all the way to the horizon.

However, if we magnify the far end, we can see that's not quite so:

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Note that we also see that, typical of an english summer, this is actually a colour photograph - go on, admit it, all you americans thought it was a black & white one

(I'll make a follow-up post analysing the photo further, in a few mins)


Dave

great image .

I have paint shop pro 8 and it has a tool you can use to draw those lines on any image ..very cool program

here is my attempt, I thought it was all good till i went to put the lights in, then my lights seemed to be either too close or too far away, sooo I thought i would erase some bridge and lower the horizon, but I think by doing that i screwed it all up..

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Kay I think that's what threw me off on mine .. I have my lights Toooooo close..
Thanks for the comments .. And I knew it was color.. Hey now there's an Idea .. Add some color ? Naw .. why try and make a purse out of a sows ear ? it's hopeless..

OK, its the "end of the pier show" - let's analyse it a little further:

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Lets look at the horizon-line first. I've marked that in green - I've deliberately left it at the ends, so you can see the sea-level at the horizon.

I've marked approximate floor-level at the widest point of the pier in red.

I've marked the width of the walkway at the point where the pier widens out, in blue, and the approximate floor level there.

(Ignore the orange lines for the moment, I'll get to them, shortly)

So, how far above the ground-level is our eye-line here? Well we are standing on the pier, and the pier is above sea-level, so we have to be the height that the pier is above sea-level, plus the height up to where the camera is being held.

Note that the green horizon-line cuts through the people standing at the end of the pier at upper-chest level - so that's telling us that our camera position is a little low, as compared to them.

Now remember, we said that horizontal lines receding towards the horizon end at a vanishing point on the horizon - now I've drawn the edges of the pier in orange, and when we extend the lines until they cross at a vanishing-point, we find they are NOT on the horizon, but above it! So, what's going on? Have I drawn them inaccurately? Do our rules not work? But again, remember we said that horizontal lines receding towards the horizon end at a vanishing point on the horizon - is it possible that the pier is NOT, in fact, horizontal - but that it actually is a gentle ramp upward? This IS what is going on here, and that's why the VP is above the horizon.

We have further evidence that this is the case by examining the fence around the end of the wide part of the pier. Note that this extends above our eye-line/horizon-line - but surely it can't be higher than people at the end of the pier, or they would have no view out to sea. Furthermore, it doesn't appear significantly taller than the top of the pier near us - and that's certainly below our eye-level.

We can also remember that we noted the eyeline in relation to people at the end of the pier was that it was at their mid-chest level - which, if the pier was horizontal, would imply we were also holding the camera at mid-chest level - if, however, we were holding the camera at eye-level, or just a little lower (as is typical of a camera in a tripod), this would also be consistent with our other observations suggesting that the pier gently slopes upward.

So, as I said, its not quite such a simple subject after all, but perspective does still apply, and we can even use our knowledge of it to make some quite sophisticated deductions about exactly what we are looking at

Dave

wow..i think i may have had it closer the first time before i erased and lowered everything

While for most challenges, some choice is a good thing, in this case, frankly, its not. Its far more educational to do one at a time and milk it for all its worth, instead of Steve and I having to try to explain and troubleshoot a lot of different things going on in different pictures, and different people's drawings of them, all simultaneously.

Dave

Blimey Dave! Even I'm confused now...? . If you look at the original photo, and then look at you drawings, the first thing I see is the different sizes of of the images. The photo is almost square, but the drawings are in portrait mode. If you take a square of paper and try it, it'll work much better. Also, Look at where the sides of the pier go off the paper, quite close to the horizon at the top of the image, the lower down you bring those lines the higher your viewpoint.

Let's look at just half the picture. You can see the green lines are the Horizon, the base of the lamps, and where the seating exits the photo. The two red lines are of equal size, so the distance between the top of the picture to the horizon, is slightly more than the distance from the horizon to where the seating exits the photo.

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I think i have it now, i have to rework it, but i notice that gazebo at the center from the floor to the tip (minus ornament) is the same size as both sides of available water as well..

so now those lamps should fall where they need to when i rework this for the 3rd time

Nope I'm only 5'3" .. looking at the closer view .I can see the reason why my drawing looks so far away ... I was apparently floating in air above the pier but the lamps are standing straight.. I will try that half paper thing and see if I can locate a better view.. The sloping upward .. I never saw it.. My sides don't come off the paper right .. seems the seating leave but the piers floor continues..

k, i am up, and at it again, do you realize yesterday i went at this for nearly 24 hrs straight

OK. Just tried this myself. This took about 30 minutes. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't too difficult! Outlined very lightly with a 2h pencil and a ruler, with just one vp on the horizon line in the center of the pier; then freehanded over with a 2b and 4b pencils. A5 sketchpad.

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30 minutes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I give up...

Come on! Get with it. It's just a few straight lines!

Got one of these? Just tried it on my sketch and it is the angle of the seat to the horizon.

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okay one more time .. but you can bet it will take me a site longer that 30 minutes.. Don't have one of those angles..I'll just grit my teeth and and squint my eyes & try AND SEE IT grrrrrrrrr!!!

a few straight lines he says!!!

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a few straight lines...lmao..i have to run an errand but will post again in a couple hours..

first attempt..1 hour..I need a scanner..or a better camera
Kat

uh she did it!! you go girl..i am just starting on it AGAIN!

there is a picture of the taj mahal, with the long pond in front and the trees along side that my teacher (dvd teacher bob davies) used to try to teach us one point perspective, instead of the ol railway tie way, which made the lesson much more interesting, as you have done here

I am giving this a go but I see where I messed up already.. made all my lines from the center. Think I should have did the horizon line and everything a the end of the pier then drawn the line showing the perspective of the floor and seats.. everything is off now.. where did that big fat eraser go...

i have one of those, it is massive and it says right on it 'for big mistakes' got it at the dollar store, and it surprisingly is quite a good eraser

i have noted so far that the vp does indeed rise ever so slightly above the horizon, if you use the end building as a guide, the water area is the same size which seems to put that vp there..so far it seems anyway

Excellent.

does this exercise remind anyone else of 'sesame street'?


I keep expecting grover to pop out at any minute, "NEAR", (runs down to other end of pier) "Far"
...remember those..

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I AM SOOO HAPPY, COME HERE, BOTH OF YOU GUYS, STEVE AND DAVE, BIG HUGS,, HUGS ALL AROUND...I DID IT...YAAAAY!!

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You guys are breaking that barrier, bit by bit, it has been so long i have tried and look..LOOK I DID IT!!

WAKE UP! WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!!!!!!!!.. I know its 12:30 in the morning, you dont feel good, but if i could I would be I would be bouncing up and down on the bed right now..

I really do have a handle on it..the one point perspective any way and to prove it to myself I went back to that taj mahal picture that I simply couldnt do and scratched out a 20 or 30 min doodle of it just to see if i really do understand and LOOK! here it is, I learned it, I am soooo tickled

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Well.. not 30 minutes.. not an hour.. but ALL DAY and into the night.. Not sure it is correct but close.. oh the lamp on the right is leaning do to a storm that washed the footing away under that lamp..

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an excellent job too

Big improvements all round, here! Well done, everybody!

Hi guys! I can't leave you alone a couple of days, that you start a new thread, and suddenly I have three pages to read in only two days!!!!
Great subject Steve. I'll try to participate if I can find my 30 minutes during the week end
Claudio

sheesh...

oh my I should very much like to thank my 'friends' for sharing in my excitement, how very kind of you all

I thought I had? :



I've been elsewhere all day, dealing with problems.

We love you. I've been trying to participate but I'm in severe pain! Not sure the Doctors diagnosis about a swollen gland was right? Haven't eaten properly for days! You've made a huge improvement! Say when you're ready for another photo to work on?

i am ready!

when you feel better, we spent the day well most of it, with the kids..

OK. Try this. Bearing in mind these are very old buildings, so the lines may not be straight. But we are great artists! And we can do this!



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ok..i have a bunch of shopping to do today, but i will try very hard when i get back