five

Here's an excellent landscape example from pollyesther ... perspective works and notice how the brightness of the sky pops the viewer back into the picture. Lots of hers are good, so her gallery would be a great place to look.

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=67304

five

Finally, if you are interested in looking at handling the random bits of color and texture, a good TD artist to check out is QSilv ... she does an excellent job at seeing the pixels as spots of color with which to make marks... this one was in the Top 5....

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=59072

marius

Here's one that shows perspective looking down. (I've seen MUCH better on TD.) Funny, the prespcetive was a fluke. Was so focused on the tree that didn't realize much about the things below ... and that shows. : )

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=45158

marius

Here's one I like.

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=57526

marius

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=46191

marius

I found these by searching through the Gallery, selecting "most ratings" and then, "all time." Yeah, you have to look through several pages but since you are just looking for landscapes as if viewing down on them, the pics will pop right out at you.

Shanley

Thank you both for the help. A4e4ka's Machu Pichu is the closest to what I've been trying in 'Castle on the hill'. Luckily for me, it gave me a few clues. (especially those pathes descending and ending all of the sudden ).

Login

I have very little knowledge on the subject but I believe that, with buildings, if you continue their horizontal lines, all lines should meet at a single point in the distance. I'm not sue if that is the correct way of putting but here is a good example, by marg:
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=40673

Login

Working in such a small space, not all of the lines are perfect, but you get the general idea from this picture. There are artists amongst us with more technical knowledge ... let's hope they look in and give a better explanation.

Shanley

this case speaks for itself (don't know why Marg's questioning her talent), but my problem was looking down a hill to a valleyand another hill. This pic was the starting point for the discusion: http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=70858
And here are some sketches done by Five and me, trying to solve my 'castle hill problem':
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=70882
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=70873
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=70866
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=70880

Thank you again for having the patience to explain this, Five. It's been really helpful to get so many perspective models. Although I have a long way to go from sketching the drawing to getting a nice detailed result, this practice helps clearing out the ideas.

five

Here's my last one, Shanley --

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=70884

five

What Login describes is one point linear perspective, favored in western tradition, and what a camera creates when you snap a picture...; there are different perspective systems, and each has inherent distortions; do what you need to achieve the effect you want. For example, eastern tradition makes the biggest items the biggest even if the are the furthest away -- reverse perspective -- which is also what Cezanne often used because in a sense, it's more "real" to what we know -- we know the mountains are bigger than the houses, etc., not smaller And cubism/variations on cubism move the perspective around in a controlled way to give multiple perspectives -- like you were moving around the piece.

Shanley

Thank you agai Five. The way I see it, this one would come down to playing with detailing (the observer's hill) & non-detailing areas (valley in the back) in order to get it right. Maybe playing a bit with 'blurred' colors would add the valley some depth and make a nice contrast with the hills. That's however another type of study.

Shanley

Theoretical knowledge is always a plus, that's why I insisted on somebody trying to explain.
Some more explanations on perspective: http://www.artyfactory.com/perspective_drawing/perspective_index.htm .

five

That website offers good explanations of linear perspective, Shanley.

Login

Does this help?
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=18282 byArw65

It has detail (or in this case, the subject) in the foreground, giving perspective and the feeling that we’re looking down into a valley.

Shanley

You read my mind Login. The blurring effect combined to what I call the 'flower efect'...just like lilly petals. Arw skipped the closest petal...well, actually replaced it with centerpiece of the first plan. I thought I'd try it myself: http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=70888
Kept a static background replacing the sky. Just a sketch of course. (Having a separate gallery for doodle would be great )

Arw65

I was playing with this idea of loving down from a mountain top into a valey with mountains rising on the other side, This is what i came up with.
hope it helps
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=70912

maddyjean08

I think I'm having short-term memory loss. I just read the whole page and forgot every word except the word 'Shanley". And possibly 'go'.

Shanley

LOL Maddy. We were just discussing some tehnique issues here. Nothing to be frightened of .