Question

Explain the differences between one point perspective and two point perspective.

Answer 1

One point and two point perspective differs most on their positioning. If you're looking at a piece, it's easiest to tell the difference by figuring out where the vanishing point is. For example, on a photo if you were going to walk to the farthest point you could see on the horizon(sometimes if there weren't buildings, trees, etc in the way), that's usually your vanishing point. One point perspective (normal view) has one vanishing point. Think of pictures of lonely abandonned roads. The road eventually vanishes into nowhere, usually the center. That's your one point perspective. If you were creating a one-p drawing, you could place a point somewhere on the page, draw lines out from it. Draw two vertical lines, and you've made a wall. A flat surface should follow those lines to provide scale. It's helpful if you want to make a piece really feel like the viewer is involved in the view. Two point perspective has two vanishing points on the horizon, usually one left and one right. Think of looking at the corner of a building from a distance, you'd see one wall disappearing off to one side, and one to the other side. Again scale is created by placing lines radiating out from both points. This is a great perspective for architectural renditions, and showing greater depth.