Paradise Valley Perspective

A little Montana cabin in Paradise Valley I painted the other day.
8x10 plein air study by Shirl Ireland

 

Paradise Valley is the gorgeous area north of us that has endless painting potential - expansive mountain views and abundant wildlife. A quintessential Montana feel. A wide open valley with soaring mountains on either side and the Yellowstone River running through it. It's a beautiful spot to spend the day painting...AND studying perspective!

 

With so many interesting old cabins, barns, rustic small Montana buildings, (even a one room schoolhouse I have my eye on!), it's the perfect place to kick off a perspective drawing lesson!...

 

PERSPECTIVE -

While we're on the drawing subject, we don't want to miss out on perspective. Because the principles of perspective are at work in everything you draw.

You’ll notice that all things receding from your eye become smaller. But to complicate matters, overlapping and foreshortening can occur.

Most obvious examples of perspective can be seen in buildings, railroad tracks across a flat plane, and boxes -  but the effects of perspective occur in EVERYTHING…including trees, clouds in the sky, a winding road and shadows.

Since you will use perspective whether you’re drawing a house or a landscape or people on a beach it’s good to familiarize yourself with at least the basic elements of horizon line and vanishing points.

To draw, you need to transform the three-dimensional experience into two dimensions, so you can put it on canvas. View the scene as a flat arrangement of shapes, NOT as assorted items separated from one another in space.  

Simple small buildings, such as the cabin I painted, are good illustrations of perspective.

A photo of some other small buildings in the area I've painted -
more good examples to show perspective.

 

Notice the angles on the planes of the cabin walls and the angles of the roof.  Look at the road, how it changes in the distance. And even the different cabins as they recede, overall getting smaller and smaller as they become further away from you.....Perspective.

As I mentioned above, all things receding from your eye become smaller – including the wall of a building. Therefore, the front vertical edge of the wall would be larger than the vertical end of the wall that is further away from you. That is the principle of vanishing points…the horizontal top and bottom edges would converge to a vanishing point. 

Now, we're getting into a more complicated subject than I can cover in one post - after all my college class on perspective was an entire semester. If you'd like to learn a little more about the basics of vanishing points and horizon lines, click here.

 

Just remember, perspective is EVERYWHERE. Look at the clouds at the horizon compared to the clouds over your head, look at the trees in the foreground vs. the faraway background, the change in a winding river from the foreground to the background.

And if you get to Paradise Valley, it's great place to start a perspective lesson...and see beautiful views and wildlife too!

 

 

Some big horn sheep 'crossing my path' on the drive up the Valley.