Perspective drawing

Ages 9 to 12 Read alone or together · about 35 minutes

Read together

Things far away look smaller, and lines going away seem to meet at a point on the horizon.

Artists use this to make a flat page look deep.

Do it

1. Draw a horizon line across a page and a dot on it, the vanishing point.
2. Draw a road from the bottom corners to the dot. Add trees along it, big near and small far.
3. Draw a box using lines that go to the dot.
4. Compare with a flat drawing you made before.

Talk about it

• Where do the lines meet?
• Why are far trees smaller?

For the grown-up

Linear perspective was developed in Renaissance Italy, though other cultures show depth in other ways. Use a ruler and a pencil, and let the child see that rules can help creativity.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Kemp, M., The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat (Yale University Press, 1990)
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, essay on linear perspective

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.