PRINCIPLES OF DEPTH
1. The Basics
JAKE SPICER’S new six-part series will show you how to represent a sense of space in your work. He begins with an exercise to help you identify when to use the five basic principles
M
ention perspective in a drawing class and the attention of students vanishes faster than two straight lines converging on a horizon line, but the principles of depth are about much more than the strictures of technical drawing. To paraphrase the Royal Academy’s former Professor of Perspective, Humphrey Ocean, perspective describes how we look at the world around us. We exist in three dimensions whereas paintings, drawings and prints exist in two; by engaging with the principles that govern how we perceive space on the surface of paper, we can learn to see the world around us with fresh eyes. In this new six-part series examining the principles of depth, I’ll be looking at how we can better perceive and represent space in the world around us, touching upon – but not limited to – the viewpoint of linear perspective. I’ll also be exploring how you can use an understanding of depth to inform the choices you make in your images, deciding when to use visual cues to suggest depth and when to make choices that serve the composition and narrative of your pictures. In this article I’ll be taking a broader look at the three major principles of depth – diminution, atmospheric perspective, detail – and the two sub-categories of foreshortening and linear perspective, before tackling each one of the five in more depth in the subsequent issues.
44 Artists
& Illustrators
