Perspective Drawing Extra
By Michael Naylor

To view Michael Naylor's article on Art-Inspired Math click here.

Perspective Drawing (Grades 4-8)
Renaissance artists studied perspective drawings to make pictures look three-dimensional. Leonardo da Vinci was one such artist. In one-point perspective drawings, all lines move away into the distance towards a single point, called the vanishing point. Print some pictures for your students that show one-point perspective. Da Vinci's The Last Supper is a good example. Have your students find lines that seem to be directed towards a single point. They can then use rulers to extend these lines and find the vanishing point.

da Vinci's The Last Supper (1498)

Lines extended to show the vanishing point

Now ask your students to make their own perspective drawings. Have them mark a point on their papers that will be the vanishing point. Next have them draw several rectangles on their paper and then lightly draw straight lines from the corners of the rectangles to the vanishing point. They should then draw lines parallel to the edges of their rectangles to create 3D boxes.

Once your students have the hang of it, they can try to create a street scene with buildings lining both sides of the street. For an interesting look at perspective drawings using one, two, three or more (up to six!) vanishing points, see www.termespheres.com/perspective.html

To view Michael Naylor's article on Art-Inspired Math click here.

Michael Naylor is a professor of math education at Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA.

March, 2007, Vol.37, No.6