Lesson Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Identify parallel lines by tracing them back to the vanishing point.
• Create block shapes according to the rules of perspective.
• Navigate 3-dimensional space by referring to the vanishing points for up/down, left/right, and backwards/forwards.

What do you see?

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How would you describe this style of painting?

Does anyone know where these paintings are from?

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Egypt!

this lesson isn’t actually about Egyptian painting

Compare and Contrast

Egyptian painting has rules.

For example,

• Feet must be drawn sideways.
• Head must be drawn sideways.
• Shoulders must be drawn from the front.

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Italian Renaissance painting also has rules…

What do you think the rules are?

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Rules of Perspective

When you look at parallel lines, they will appear to converge to a single point.

A Cube in Perspective

How many sets of parallel lines, does a cube have?

Even if the cube is spinning, parallel lines will still point to a single place. The place the lines point to is called the vanishing point of the parallel lines.

Parallel Lines and the Vanishing Point

If parallel lines must flow to the vanishing point, then what does a vanishing point “look like”?

It looks like a star!

Vanishing Points of the Cube

Because a cube has 3 sets of parallel lines,

• Up and Down
• Left and Right
• Forward and Backward

We must mark 3 Vanishing Points (Stars) on our paper.

Activity 1: Drawing a Cube in Perspective

Complete the attached worksheet. Perspective Cube 1-2-3

Activity 2: Let’s build in Minecraft!

Worksheet

Use this worksheet containing a single block. Find the vanishing points and rebuild the house.

Step-by-Step

We want to rebuild the house, according to the design. The major step is to recreate the grid, which only needs us to use 2 vanishing points.

Activity 3: Block Letters

Quiz

Perspective drawing is a way of drawing to make things look…

• 3D
• Flat

In perspective drawing, _________________ lines appear to come together at a single point, called the vanishing point.

• Curvy
• Straight
• Parallel
• Perpendicular