Bayshore Art Studio Creating Thinking Expansion: One-Point Perspective
Today, let's combine the basic knowledge of "perspective" that we’ve learned over the past two weeks, specifically "one-point perspective," and take a look together:
First, I’ll show you two paintings: The first one is the mosaic "Justinian and His Attendants." This painting depicts Emperor Justinian and his attendants holding the chalice, plate, and offerings, presenting them as a sacrifice to Christ. It is a representative work of Byzantine decorative art.
Here’s another one, which is more familiar to everyone, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper.
Both of these images feature a row of people, but we can clearly sense the sense of space in The Last Supper.
The Last Supper uses one-point perspective. In the painting, the ceiling, wall corners, floor tiles, column lines, edges of the table and chairs, window frame edges, and the hypothetical extension lines of the light all converge at a single point located behind Jesus' head in the deep part of the painting. This creates a sense of depth in the scene. This point serves as the center of the entire painting and is also the focal point of the visual. The halo effect perfectly expresses the divinity of Jesus, demonstrating a highly successful application of perspective.
How does one-point perspective create a sense of space? We’ll focus on two key points:
Objects appear larger when closer, smaller when farther away.
All lines converge to a single point.
How do we understand the sense of space these two points bring? Let’s follow the camera in the video and take a look to experience it firsthand.
Please observe and think about the following:
What types of lines do you see in the video?
Where do all the lines eventually converge?
Why do the people moving in the video appear to get bigger or smaller?
Where in the video frame do you see the people as the largest? Where do you see them as the smallest? Why?
After watching, please share your thoughts, and then we’ll revisit the following questions:
How does "one-point perspective" create a sense of space?
Think back to your class assignments from the past two weeks: "Underwater Tunnel" and "City Highway." If you were to draw them again, how would you arrange the composition to reflect the spatial feel of the theme?
Xianqi Si, 7 years old, Bayshore Art Studio
Aiden, 7 years old, Bayshore Art Studio
At the end of today's art thinking expansion public class, I will introduce the installation artwork "Sky’s the Limit" featured in the video. It is located between Gates B and C at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. The installation consists of 466 neon light tubes arranged along a 744-foot-long tunnel, with 23,600 square feet of built-in mirrors that reflect the neon lights over a distance of 1 mile. The entire installation is controlled by three computers. This artwork was created in 1987 by Canadian artist Michael Hayden.
In this artwork, the art vocabulary we are introducing is "lines." So, what kinds of lines are there? How can we use or incorporate lines to convey a sense of space in a visual composition? Let us guide you through this in our next public art thinking class.
References
Michael Hayden, SKY'S THE LIMIT, from http://www.thinkinglightly.com/portfolio.cgi?item=HA07
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