One Point Perspective Drawing Art Lesson (with a Template & Video Tutorial) (2024)

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One-point perspective is a drawing technique that illustrates how objects seem to shrink as they move farther away, all coming together towards a lone “vanishing point” on the horizon line.

The above drawing is another example of how this happens. It shows trees of the same type and size, lining a street, a couple of figures and a bench. When the content is very simple like this, it’s easier understand what is going on and how things need to scale down, they further away they are from the viewer.

The artist that made the above drawing also included the guide lines that the pros use to plan their perspective drawing. The horizon line is drawn, vanishing point placed, and many lines that point to it are added. They are very helpful as they tell the artist where the street will go, and how tall each tree should be. The only catch for young artists is that these lines can be tedious to draw, so that’s why this perspective lesson comes with a template with them already in place.

The world of one (and two) point perspective is large, and fascinating, and many of the pros study it for years. Even the masters back in the days of the Renaissance period spent their lives learning more about, and perfecting it.

Elementary students are very capable of enjoying the concept too, and seeing what happens when they add it to their artwork. All it takes is a little more guidance (as with a ready-made template) some step-by-step instructions, and a video to see things in real life. Luckily, all three of those are available with this City with One Point Perspective art lesson!

Time needed:1 hour

Draw a City Street using Linear Perspective

1. Use the guides to trace lines for two sidewalks that meet at a point on the horizon line.

   Keep in mind the dashed perspective lines on this guide are meant to be used for reference, and not traced and made permanent.
   

2. Draw three buildings on one side.

   Use the guides to help you draw vertical lines on the side, and angled lines on the top. Another way to check is to make sure the sides all look like parallel lines.
   

3. Add windows, doors and details.

   The sides should all be vertical, and the tops and bottoms angled.
   

4. Draw a set of trees that get progressively smaller.

   The line the tops create will also point to the single vanishing point on the horizon line.
   

5. Add straight lines on the sidewalk.

   They should appear to get smaller and shorter as they progress towards the horizon line. These will add even more of a perspective view to the drawing.
   

6. Add dashed vertical lines for the center of the street.

   Trace the horizon line and add a sun on top. A few clouds will also brighten up the sky.
   

7. Draw a car somewhere on the road, if you’d like.

   

8. Trace and color with markers.

   

9. Add another layer of marker color to make shadows.

   

• Boardwalk

• Draw a Room

• Perspective Landscape

• Draw 3D Letters

• 3D Numbers

• Draw a Cube

• 3D Buildings