Silverpoint

Eye level and one-point perspective

Eye level: a standing viewer, the horizon line at the height of their eye, with things above it showing their undersides and things below showing their topsEYE LEVEL = HORIZONabove eye level:you see its undersidebelow eye level:you see its topstraddles: no top, no undersideSit down and the horizon drops. Climb a hill and it rises. It is always exactly atyour eye.Draw the eye-level line first on every architectural page. Faintly. Everything hangs from it.
FigureEye level
FoundationLine

Eye level and one-point perspective

Your hallway, then a street

Find the eye level, place a vanishing point on it, and draw a corridor and a street in one-point perspective.

Difficulty
Time
about 1 h
You draw with
2H, HB, 2B
Eye levelOne-point perspectiveSighting angles

Why this one

  • Unit 4 of the program: Line: the Draughtsman's Half.
  • A corridor and a street where every receding line meets at one point on the eye level, every vertical is plumb, and every cross-line is level.

From your kit

The whole kit →
  1. 1Grafwood 2H, HB, 2B 2H, HB for layout and line; 2B for the darks. Long points from the Blackwing on everything up to B.
  2. 2Kneaded eraser and the Mono Zero press-and-lift corrections only; the Mono Zero for a single sharp light.
  3. 3Alpha sketchbook 9 x 6 draw at the book's size and keep the proportions; date the page.
In general, this study asks for
  • Drawing pad
  • 2H, HB, 2B
  • A hallway or corridor, and a photo of a street seen straight down its length

Watch first

All videos →

A street in one point from a blank page. The Old College Wynd set-up.

YouTube
How to draw using 1-point perspectiveCircle Line Art School · The shortest clean explanation of the vanishing point.Proportion: sighting anglesDrawing Fundamentals · Sighting angles with a pencil against level and plumb.

The plan

4 stages · ~56 min
  1. 1

    Find your eye level

    17 min

    Stand at the end of a hallway. Hold the pencil level at arm's length: whatever it covers on the far wall is your eye level. Notice that the floor lines rise toward it and the ceiling lines fall toward it. Sit on the floor and watch the eye level drop. That line is attached to your eye, not to the room.

    Eye level: a standing viewer, the horizon line at the height of their eye, with things above it showing their undersides and things below showing their topsEYE LEVEL = HORIZONabove eye level:you see its undersidebelow eye level:you see its topstraddles: no top, no undersideSit down and the horizon drops. Climb a hill and it rises. It is always exactly atyour eye.Draw the eye-level line first on every architectural page. Faintly. Everything hangs from it.
    FigureAbove: undersides. Below: tops.
    Checklist0 / 1
  2. 2

    The hallway

    17 min

    Draw the eye-level line faintly across the sheet. Put a dot on it where the hallway's far end is. Sight the angle of the floor's left edge and draw it; it should aim at the dot. Same for the right edge, the ceiling edges, the top of the skirting. Door frames stay plumb. Cross-lines stay level.

    One-point perspective of a narrow lane: all receding edges converge to a single vanishing point on the eye-level line, while verticals stay vertical and horizontals stay horizontalVPeye levelUse it when you look straight down a street, a nave, a wynd. Verticals stay plumb.Cross-lines stay level.Forrest's Old College Wynd, Meryon's Paris streets, every cathedral nave: one point.
    FigureEverything receding aims at one point on the eye level.
    Checklist0 / 1
  3. 3

    A street

    17 min

    From the photo, same method. Eye level first (it runs through the heads of any standing figures). Vanishing point. The two building fronts as receding lines. Then window sills and lintels, all aiming at the dot. Meryon's Petit Pont will show you the eye level through the figures on the quay.

    The Petit Pont, Meryon, 1850
    Cleveland Museum of Art

    Meryon, The Petit Pont, 1850. etching with engraving.

    Meryon, The Petit Pont. The eye level runs through the figures; the quay and the building fronts recede toward it.

    The Cleveland Museum of Art · John L. Severance Fund

    Checklist0 / 1
  4. 4

    Self-check

    5 min

    Tick each item honestly. If one is a no, the session is not finished; go back to that step.

    Checklist0 / 3

What it should look like

  • A corridor and a street where every receding line meets at one point on the eye level, every vertical is plumb, and every cross-line is level.

Where it goes wrong

  • Vanishing point above or below the eye level. Placed by guess. It is on the line. Always.
  • Verticals leaning inward. They started converging like the receding lines. Check each against the paper's edge.

Log this session

Start the clock when you pick up the pencil. Stop it when you put it down. Log it. Every session counts toward the box.

00:00of ~60 min

Status

How did it go?

Up nextThe broken line