Perspective Drawing in Adobe Illustrator CS5

1. Introduction to Perspective

Our vision enables us to perceive the dimensions of objects we see around us: height, width and length, and depth or distance. This multidimensionality requires that when we draw a scene on a 2D surface such as canvas, we create a sense of depth so that objects in the scene have a look and feel resembling our perception. For ages humans have tried in various ways to depict real-world objects as realistically as possible. Perspective drawing is one technique that has been used for a few centuries now. It developed from two simple observations: first, that objects farther from the eye appear smaller than those closer to the eye; and second, that parallel edges tend to meet at one point.

Perspective drawing is based ...