Easy ways to create a “visual illusion” in your design.

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Designs such as drawings are flat and done on a 2-dimensional surface so artists often use the art of perspective to make the design look more realistic and 3-dimensional. Perspective is very important in graphic design because without it, your creation would look very flat, boring, and not very lifelike. If you were to ask a group of people to compare a regular drawing to one with perspective, the one with perspective and depth would be found be to more intriguing and engaging. Perspective can be created on paper by adding the height, width, and depth of an object and its position, and can totally change the whole picture and the meaning of it.

Perspective can evoke many feelings depending on the art. For example if the Burj Khalifa–the tallest building in the world–were drawn from the perspective of the base of the building looking up, then the viewer would feel very small. You can make someone feel uneasy and dizzy as well as if the view is from the very top as people tend to have a fear of heights. If you look down from such a high place it could feel like if you were to fall off that you would be falling for an infinite amount of time and that the space just continues. Or depending on how you portray the scene and building it could feel empowering to see from the view of the top where you can feel like you’re towering over people and are superior.

If you were to imagine looking at a picture of someone’s bedroom but everything seems tall from the viewer’s perspective, this would imply the perspective is from a child. This could create a feeling of being small and panicked or it could make you feel childish and fun.

Image by: KicsterAsh on DeviantArt

What kind of feelings does this picture evoke? Does looking up at the extremely tall trees give you a sense of happiness and adventure? Or does it make you feel lost, isolated, and tiny? Does it seem like the trees go on forever and you are trapped?

As an artist, perspective can be easy to obtain when you keep in mind the five main types of ways to create this visual effect. Using these will make the process much easier and your work will come out looking much more lifelike. The six main ways are:

Size and Overlap

Imagine looking at the mountains where you can see that the larger mountains are in front and the smaller ones are further behind with a railroad that looks as if it begins to intersect. This is all because objects that are larger appear closer and further away objects become smaller. The larger objects also tend to overlap the smaller ones. Another rule that goes hand-in-hand with size and overlap is that parallel lines intersect at the horizon. In real life, railroads never intersect but as distance increases they look as if they meet.

Image by:  Stephenspencer1993

Colour and Texture

Oftentimes lighter colours such as yellow red and orange seem to look closer while the darker colours like blue are seen as further back. Warmer colours are called advancing colours and cooler colours are called receding colours. The cool colours are also often finer-grained than the closer warm colours that are coarse-grained.

Shade and Shadows

Shadows are used behind objects which don’t receive light. Depending on where and what the light source is, the shadow will vary in size and darkness. Shade is the part of an object that doesn’t receive light. For example, if there is a lamp to the right of a mug, the shade is the left side of the mug and the shadow would be a circular shape to the left on the table it in on. Shade and shadows help create perspective by demonstrating how far an object is when there is a light source present.

All in all, perspective is very appealing to one’s eye. It is commonly used in many forms of art and will continue to be for a long time. You will see this while looking at all most any piece of art and everywhere outside and in real life! I highly recommend using these visual tricks when you create your next piece of work as it will make it that much better!