The Port of Montréal by Adrien Hébert

Adrien Hébert was a Montreal painter and teacher in the first part of the 20th century. He was not a prominent innovator, rather he painted the city that became his home – he was originally from France. Having arrived in Montreal myself, I’ve always retained a soft spot for the city and it’s painters.

This 1924 painting typifies his focus as urban painter and Hébert painted around the Montreal docks regularly. He was inspired by the hustle and bustle of the port, the drama of a then-vibrant working area, the comings and goings, the sights and sounds, the impact of the massive storage silos, the walkways, footbridges and connecting wharves.

This painting is a fine example of using perspective for his own artistic ideas. If he had been all tied up with accurate perspective, his painting would not have come to so much. None of the verticals are vertical, individual buildings, ships and walkways obey their own rules for space. He could have straightened up the perspective, but that would have made everything less interesting. The result is far more intriguing. That’s because he takes us on a journey into his envisioned space and we willingly go with him for the ride, more beguiling than conventional space. Isn’t that what painting is all about!

Modes of Perspective

Perspective can mean so many things. At it’s simplest, it’s all about a viewpoints and how you convey your viewpoint. In this sense, there’s no such thing as “bad” perspective!

We look out at a three-dimensional world then draw and paint on a two dimensional surface. We need to do something to convince the viewer of our picture space and world of our masterpiece – that’s creating perspective. Linear perspective is part of this however, and depending on subject, may not be the most predominant. Here are a few interlocking factors that can help make the illusion “stick”:

Overlapping forms: Foreground forms which partly obscure more distant forms will always indicate which is in front of the other, emphasizing a 3-dimensional aspect.

Size: Objects get proportionally smaller the further they are from the viewer. Populating similar objects of appropriate sizes at different distances leads the viewer to seeing depth. The mind will automatically read similar-shaped objects as the same size, therefore this will read well in perspective.

Conversely, beware of composing with smaller objects closer than larger ones of the same shape as this that can work against the illusion. For example, a small single-mast boat placed nearer than a larger one will detract. However if the larger boat is a three-master, there would be little problem – because the shapes are sufficiently different.

Object quality: How an object or passage is rendered will in itself have an impact on perspective:

• Value – High light-dark contrast will naturally read as closer, with faded or greyed out as more distant.
• Sharpness – Objects sink into the distance when they are diffused. A sharply-defined object will always appear closer than its more diffused neighbour.
• Detail – More detail within the object makes it appear closer than a simply blocked form.
• Texture – More highly textured objects and passages will appear closer.

I should note that all of this is fine and dandy, so long as it fits with the intent of the piece. A diffused, generally-rendered foreground might help lead to a more distant focus. In this case, putting a lot of detail in the foreground would work against the intent of the painting.

Warm – cool colour contrasts: Warm colours advance and cool ones recede – again, a handy method of placing objects in space. A warm, orange-red object will appear closer than its identically-sized blue-green neighbour.

Position in the picture space: In landscapes, objects placed higher in the picture frame will appear further away.

Leading the eye: Whether with a path, fence or a series of trees, placement toward a distant focus will create the illusion of depth.

Linear perspective: I’ve left the most common principle to last in this list – parallel lines recede into the distance to a vanishing point. This isn’t only useful with interiors, roads and city-scapes but with all manner of views where there is some “parallelness” to the scene, be it plowed fields, lines of trees etc.

Notes on Linear Perspective

Creating the illusion of depth with geometric straight lines – Linear Perspective – has been with us since the Renaissance Period of the 1400’s. Perspective was initially seen as creating an almost magical realism in paintings and drawings. Even today, it surprises and has me scratching my head, given that following a few rules can be so effective: perhaps even too effective, should your objective be to diverge from realism.

In the following video, I describe drawing a house in 2-point perspective.

 

Two-point perspective is simply following 2 sets of receding parallel lines, typically emanating from a common corner. When you can see a corner, you can by definition see a second edge, wall, or surface. It is truly twice the fun, or more: It gets us out from the street or interior to describe houses, neighborhoods and city-scapes.

The principles of Linear Perspective may appear simple and it’s easy to gloss over the subject, not fully internalizing the concept. Take time to practice, until it almost seems like there is no construction needed!. Should you be interested in investigating the rule of linear perspective, just let me know and I’ll send some additional information!

 

Examples

Van Gogh’s Room

In 1889 Van Gogh painted his room at Arles, for the third time. Previous versions had followed all the rules of perspective, which he knew well. In this last version however, he tilted the chairs towards the viewer showing the tops more than called for by linear perspective. Who knows why he did this….perhaps he just liked the green of the seats. However in this he created a second viewpoint, essentially multiple perspectives in the same picture space. Had he lived on, maybe cubism would have not seemed so radical, those 20 years hence.

Painting a  watercolour from an A.Y. Jackson sketch

In this video painting session, I draw and paint a cottage in watercolour. This shows the approach that makes sense when perspective is a factor and not a driving feature. I get the receding building plausible without specifically constructing to vanishing points and this is  my favorite approach: plausible is often preferable to perfect. In this way, the image resolves nicely with out being too “correct”.

“Wonky” Perspective

Here are a couple of examples in which I’ve created new perspective on a motif by changing the rules of perspective, in both cases curving space, and then following my new rules – sort of!

Maybe many would not overtly intend to change perspective in this way, however mildly changing perfect perspective can often create astounding results.

Exercise

1. This week, develop your composition with an eye to conveying your message of spatial relationships – your viewpoint. That could be within the conventions of perspective, say perhaps with a building or city scape.
2. Equally, should you choose a landscape, organizing the picture space to advantage can help the viewer through your painting. By using a photo reference directly, you are certain to find adjustments that will help you!