Learn Acrylic Painting Perspective and Shading
Painting perspective with acrylics can help you create a more realistic picture if you follow the steps to give the painting depth. When you learn the basics you can create distance in your pictures. Before you pick up the paintbrush, practice a few things with paper and pencil. Learning the basics that way helps you create perspective with acrylic paints.
Instructions
1. Draw a line along the horizon at the upper part of the page. Use a ruler so that you know that the line is straight.
2. Create a square below the horizon line. Place the square to one side of the paper. The size of the square doesn't matter, but if you make it too small, it's difficult to draw and shade as you go further back. Make it down to one corner so you have room to show more perspective.
3. Place a dot on the horizon line. If you put your square to the left of the page make the dot to the right of the square on the line. Draw a line from the two upper corners of the square to the dot on the line with the ruler. You also need to draw a line from the bottom corner. Use the corner that doesn't force the line through the middle of the box.
4. Draw the entire first box by choosing a point on the line from the corner of the box to the line on the horizon. Draw a line parallel to the horizon to connect to the line from the other corner to the horizon. At this point, you should only use the ruler in an up and down fashion or straight across when you create the perspective for the picture.
5. Drop a line down from the end of the last line that you created on the lines to the horizon to finish the first box.
6. Draw two lines as you just did but do it further down on the lines to the horizon. Continue this down the line to create more boxes. If you need to see the second box, drop a line from the inside corner to the top of the first box line and one up from the bottom dropped down. Erase the line in between the boxes.
7. Color the drawing and use monochromatic tones to enhance the illusion when you paint the acrylic and want to show perspective. Paint the front edge of the first box with a dark shade. Continue to lighten the shade on the front of each box as you get closer to the horizon. Remember, things get smaller and lighter as they get further away. This creates the illusion of depth and distance.
