clair093

The Ames room was developed by Adelbert Ames Jr as part of his research into optics and perception during the 1930s and 40s. After an early career as a painter, Ames began to explore the relationship between visual art and the scientific study of vision. He studied opthalmology at Clark University, Massachusetts and became a professor of physiological optics, developing an interest optical illusions. As part of his research, he conducted a series of experiments that he called 'the distorted room demonstrations'. When viewed from the correct position, an Ames room gives the illusion of a standard orthogonal room. It is actually a trapezoid shaped space, which means that people standing in different corners at the back of the room and who appear to be the same distance from the viewer, look as if they are completely different sizes. The optical illusion is so convincing that someone walking across the back of the room appears to increase or decrease in scale as they move from one...

Yoichi Yamamoto's project for an Issey Miyake store in Tokyo mixes real chair backs with painted anamorphic images to create an illusionary window display on which garments can be placed. The project, which is called 2D/3D chairs, makes effective use of a small space and uses simple means to create a powerful illusionary perspective. Yoichi Yamamoto describes the illusion and the intention behind it... " If you look at the installation from one point in front of the shop window, the back of the chairs, which are three-dimensional objects, and the legs of the chairs, which are two-dimensional drawings, meet and create a single figure ". " We expressed Issey Miyake’s “from 2D cloth to 3D dress” philosophy in our installation ". Photo taken from the correct perspective viewpoint A different view that reveals the illusion Plan, showing painted 2D surface and viewpoint Section, showing viewpoint and 3D chair backs Diagram, indicating the perspective construction unde...

This year there has been a very strong standard of drawings at the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield, including many good perspective drawings. A selection of the best are shown here... Claire Burnham - Centre for International Students , BA, Year 2, Marcus Humphrey-Gaskin Prize Corina Angheloiu - Hotel for the Disillusioned , BA, Year 3 Joseph Dimery - Mushroom Farm , BA, Year 3 Michael Horswill - Airship Transport Terminal , BA, Year 3 Holly Lang - Honeybee Conservation Centre , BA, Year 3, Stephen Welsh Prize in Draughtsmanship Wenhao Sun - Street Island - Local Life , MAAD course Ruizhao Zhang - The Street/Border , MAAD course Dan Hall - Castlegate Market Silver Service Tea House , MArch, Year 5 Marianne Howard - Reclamation/Revaluation Centre , MArch, Year 5 Tim Butcher - Open Wharf-Fair , MArch, Year 6 Philip Etchells - Repairing Utopia , MArch, Year 6, Dr Brian Wragg Prize in Architectural Draughtsmanship Tom Hudson - Re Collections of Berlin , MArch, Year ...

The V&A and RIBA have created an online exhibition of drawings of the work of Charles Holden from the RIBA drawings collection, based on the exhibition that took place at the Architecture Gallery of the V&A from October 2010 to February 2011. Holden's designs for London Underground stations in the 1920's and 30's were an integral part of the visual identity of the organisation that developed at the time, along with the iconic tube map, posters and Johnston's fonts. The online exhibition includes numerous perspective images by Holden and others. The exhibition is on the RIBA website . A downloadable PDF brochure is also available. New offices of the London Electric Railway Company, Broadway, London. Drawn by David Muirhead Bone, 1927 (image © copyright RIBA Drawings and Archive Collection)

I have added a 3D SketchUp model of the perspective construction used in the 'How to...' section.  This is not in order to demonstrate an alternative method of setting up a perspective drawing, but to help explain more clearly the geometry that underlies any perspective view, whether constructed in the traditional way or via a 3D CAD model. (images © copyright Russell Light) Clearly, a CAD model has many advantages in that it can be used as a basis for a whole series of drawings and different perspective views. However, it is still useful to develop an understanding of the basic principles of perspective by constructing a drawing manually, as this can help with composition and selecting a view, as well as being useful for sketches in the field or when a computer isn't to hand. The SketchUp model can be downloaded from the Google 3D Warehouse .