The Art of Perspective: The Ultimate Guide for Artists in Every Medium

By Philip W. Metzger and Phil Metzger

Book Overview

Everything you need to know to put your drawings and paintings into perspective If the concept of perspective makes you think of confusing angles, fancy measuring gadgets and complicated theories, get ready for a very pleasant surprise. In this comprehensive guide, Phil Metzger demystifies perspective, presenting it simply as a matter of mimicking the way we see--like the way a distant mountain appears blue, or a road seems to narrow in the distance. The Art of Perspective offers simple but powerful techniques for achieving a convincing illusion of depth and distance, whether it's a few inches in a still life or miles in a landscape. - Start simple, with atmospheric perspective and intuitive techniques, and gradually progress to linear perspective and more complex challenges such as stairways, curves and reflections. - Use the engaging, step-by-step demonstrations and exercises to try out each essential concept for yourself, making lessons clearer and more memorable. - Learn theories that apply to all mediums, with specific advice for achieving effects using acrylic, oil, watercolor and pencil. - Get the inside scoop on professional tricks and shortcuts that make perspective easier than ever Forget everything you think you know (or don't know) about perspective. This book builds an easy-to-follow, ground-up understanding of how to turn a flat painting or drawing surface into a living, breathing, dimensional scene that lures viewers in. No matter how you look at it, it's the ultimate guide to perspective for artists of every medium and skill level.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581808550
• ISBN13: 9781581808551
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: North Light Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.5" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

The Art of Perspective

I have "Perspective Without Pain" by the same author. The "Art of Perspective" is basically the same book, but he has expanded it with full color illustrations and some new material. The book has helped me understand and create depth in my artwork, and the exercises are fun to do. If trying to choose between the two books, the "Art of Perspective" is the best choice.

Useful and impressive

The "Art of Perspective" is an impressive and very useful guide to achieve a convincing illusion of depth in drawings or paintings. PHIL METZGER shows outstanding talent presenting his techniques with simple and easy-to-follow explanations. With his guidance we succeed putting perspective into the picture- no matter how special our eye-position or view-point may be. And he does not leave out any complementary subject, like atmospheric perspective, light and shadow or reflected light as well as many other effects that contribute to the illusion of depth. Moreover his fine watercolor paintings stimulate us to contemplate, having adopted now the ability of showing what we see in a very convincing way.

The BEST Book on Perspective!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am an art teacher who has spent years teaching perspective, linear and atmospheric...and I have never found a very good book until this one!!!! The Art of Perspective: The Ultimate Guide for Artists in Every Medium

a good perspective book

Illustrates and explains the right way to draw roof angles, shadows and reflections, as well as stairs, tile floors, wheels, etc. Uses many diagrams, photographs, painting examples (watercolor & some oil), and written suggestions for different methods to try in figuring out how to draw something correctly. Briefly touches on focus, reflected light, scale, etc; some step-by-step demonstrations on drawing houses. Some prior perspective knowledge might fill in some small gaps in information (struggled through Rex Vicat Cole's Perspective for Artists, a helpful 1920s textbook-like reprint) but this book goes to great lengths to illustrate perspective in a way I can understand.

For once - a complete detailed well written book

This book is incredible. I highly recommend it. The writing is detailed, clear and simple. The accompanying photographs, line drawings, sketches and paintings are numerous and clearly show what is being discussed. The discussion is comprehensive but written in a way to make the subject clear without unnecessary clutter. The author starts with "Natural Perspective" including the elements of size, spacing, tone, value, color, overlapping, placement, etc., then moves on to the rules of Linear Perspective. I have a burgeoning collection of art, drawing, sketching and painting books and this ranks at the very top. The discussion of Natural Perpective in the first several chapters is - by itself - worth the cost of the book. I can't recommend this highly enough !!!!! So many books fall far short of their promises. This one delivers.