Most books on perspective deal with drawing, offering a host of cut-and-dried rules and diagrams. However, this essential guide was written exclusively for painters. In clear, easy-to-understand language, it includes a multitude of methods to help them add three-dimensional vitality to their work. And these techniques won’t inhibit an artist’s creativity! On the contrary, once mastered, they can be abandoned altogether to create specific effects.

With 200 expertly rendered, full-color illustrations, the authors explore the basics of perspective: light to define shape, depth, and location; viewing distance to show the space between the subject and observer; and cone of vision to reveal how much of the subject can be included without distortion. Then they broaden the scope to include picture plane, station point, horizon line and vanishing points, showing how the principles can be applied when fleshing out landscapes, still life, and figure painting. With a section on shortcuts and helpful hints, this is an essential work on perspective that artists, students, and instructors will refer to again and again.

Dover (2008) unabridged republication of the edition originally published by Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, 1990. 144 pp. * 3/8 x 11. Paperbound.