Comparing Perspective in Drawings, Photographs, and Perception

Abstract In this paper, I compare perspective in my observational drawings to photographs that I took at the same time, and, where memory allows, discuss how both relate to the visual experiences. This comparison reveals several consistent trends, including systematic size differences for distant objects, differences in foreshortening, a dependence of object shape on canvas shape, and multiperspective composition. Many of these trends can be found in historical artworks as well. Some have been previously identified in the literature, but discussions often involve very incomplete information, for example, analysis of Renaissance perspective has involved considerable speculation about the artists’ subjects and thought processes, and unfounded assumptions about the “correctness” of linear perspective. In general, if a painting and a photograph of a scene differ in some aspect, it might be that the drawing does not match visual experience of that aspect, that the photograph does not, or both. Identifying such systematic differences offers avenues for future study of how pictures and visual experience relate, and what causes these differences.