Landscape Painting In Watercolor Week 2 - Perspective Pre-Class Info No doubt you have noticed the effects of space and distance on the objects in your painting. Quite simply, those objects that are farther away seem to be smaller than those that are nearer. Linear Perspective is a system developed to accurately duplicate the effect of three-dimensional distance on objects placed in our two-dimensional picture plane. You have likely also noticed the effect of distance on color and value which is caused by light rays passing through the microscopic elements and particles that make up our atmosphere. Aerial Perspective (or Atmospheric Perspective) is the term used to describe this effect. Aerial Perspective is not so much a system, like Linear Perspective, but a set of simple guidelines that help us create the effect in our paintings. Understanding Linear Perspective will support the illusion of distance in your underlying drawing. Aerial Perspective will help when you are painting and making choices about color and value. We’ll focus on getting a handle on both this week. LINEAR PERSPECTIVE Many people get very nervous when the word ‘perspective’ is mentioned. It seems difficult and mysterious, but it is actually very simple. Perspective is based on a very simple idea: objects that are farther from you appear to be smaller. The objective – or “real” – world exists in three-dimensions: height, width and depth. Our drawings and painting exist only in two dimensions: height and width. Perspective, or linear perspective, is a system for representing the illusion of depth on a two- dimensional surface. Although it may seem scary, the principles are easy to learn and, really, essential to understand if the goal is to accurately represent objects in a painting or drawing. It would seem an easy task – just draw what we see. Our eyes see the objects as they appear, with the apparent distortions of shape and size created by distance (depth). However, our brains want to compensate for the apparent distortions – often resulting in objects that look misshapen or perhaps even falling down!