Exercise 8: TWO POINT PERSPECTIVE, Drawing a skyscraper

Follow the directions below and create a drawing of the skyscraper above in two point perspective.

The goal is to convert the picture of the skyscraper at right into a two point perspective drawing. The process is similar to the drawing of the interior room in One Point perspective, except that you now have two vanishing points available to manipulate the scene. Two vanishing points allows you to increase or decrease the amount of distortion in the drawing.

As you can see I can also begin constructing the sidewalk and street around the building. If I added street lights or other objects, they would also conform to these vanishing points. I could also draw this type of scene using two point perspective. I would do this, for example, if we were not looking up at such a steep angle into the sky. It would then be less important to locate the vanishing point for the top of the skyscraper.

Distortion in Two Point Perspective

As the building rises higher above the street the two visible sides become flexed until they look like the sides of an arrow. At this point, adding a third perspective point would help to relieve this distortion and create a more natural looking view.

If I stayed with two point perspective it would be difficult to re-create the scene in the photograph above accurately. I would end up with warping of the building as it rose in space. You can see this distortion beginning in the in the diagram at below.

As a column rises in two point perspective, it is increasingly stretched until the forms become so distorted that they no longer are recognizable.

Syd Mead is a legendary product artist and futurist who started in Detroit as a car designer and developed into a full fledge concept arts. His expert interpretation of objects in two and three point perspective may help you in understanding how to set your buildings in this exercise. Check out his art at the following website. http://www.sydmead.com/v/10/sydmead/