I’m so pleased to post this lesson. It is my first successful perspective art lesson and I owe it all to Natalie at Smart Class. Her drawing steps for one-point perspective is so perfect that I didn’t change a thing. For anyone who hasn’t introduced a lesson on perspective to your students, I encourage you to give this one a try. I’ve tried to come up with my own perspective lesson and I never could figure out an easy way to do it. So glad we have a plethora of talent out there!
My students LOVED this lesson. Perspective is part magic and part math and for creative types like me, there are specific rules that really work. My students discovered these as we worked through the lesson. About half of my fifth grade class finished this lesson in three, 50-minute sessions. The other half need an additional 30 minutes to finish.
Fifth grade perspective paintings…
Here’s another 1-Point Perspective Lesson to Try:
Click the image below to be re-directed to my “Desert Landscape Perspective Drawing” post, best for 5th grade students.
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Your students did a beautiful job on these! They really look spectacular!
I love the look of this lesson. The only problem I would have is that I have classes once every other week. It would take at least 6 weeks for the students to get them finished (maybe even longer!).
Patty they turned out beautifully! I really liked this lesson when I saw it on Natalie’s blog. Your student’s use of color adds so much to the overall composition and they all look great!
:)Pat
It looks beautiful
I love your website! I also saw this on Natalie’s blog a few weeks ago and love this lesson. I am wondering what kind of paper did you use to hold the watercolor and what size?
These turned out beautifully! This is very, very similar to the method I was taught a long, long time ago in art class. I always loved doing 1-point perspective and remember drawing TONS of 1-point perspective pieces after I learned how to do it!
Yes, I was SO pleased that my students grabbed onto this lesson. Like I said in the post, I really struggle with perspective so this lesson from Natalie was such a Godsend!!!
This is so great. I’m going to use this for our next homeschool art lesson with my 5 and 12 yr old. Love your art lessons. Thanks
Thank you so much for providing great, usable lesson plans to all of us art teachers. I’m teaching this lesson right now and link back to this page so the students can see your students’ artwork. It gives them a wider variety of options to choose from than just looking at my example. Right now I’m trying it with 5th and 6th and I have to say that the 5th graders are rocking it! The 6th graders are very caught up in socializing so I can’t exactly declare they’re rocking it just yet. Hopefully the finished products will be wonderful. Thank you again!
These are lovely!!!! You mentioned Pan watercolours. Is this a brand or type-Pan?
Sorry…I hate it when I shorten up the vocabulary! I mean pan style watercolors…the “cake” kind than comes in a plastic container.
i luv all these!!!! they are beautiful!!!
The link to “drawing steps for 1 point perspective” in the first paragraph takes you to a site called Kaleidograph. Thought you might like to know!
Thank you, Misty!!!
What type of paper were you using!? I always have to tape my kids down…would love not to have to!
What type of paper are you using here? I always have to tape my kids down – and would LOVE not to have to….
I use 76 lb sulphite paper. It’s basically a school grade drawing paper. I don’t tape down papers as I don’t mind the wrinkles and you can smooth the wrinkles once the papers are dry.
Used a variation of this lesson with my 5th and 6th graders (we used construction paper crayons on black paper rather than watercolor paint). I then “shared the learning” and made a bulletin board using cereal boxes as buildings. Turned out really great! Here’s how my bulletin board and project turned out. Thanks for the inspiration! -Greta
Note from Patty: Sorry, but I had to remove this link. It didn’t go to the correct page.
Every year I do a one point perspective drawing, but every year I feel like there has to be an easier method. I think the steps you posted here are going to work marvelously! Thanks! I can’t wait to try this.
Love this! The directions are so easy and everyone is successful. I also downloaded a short video showing someone drawing a 2 point perspective picture. Thanks for sharing.
They look awesome but wouldn’t they look better with a ruler?
Thanks so much for sharing! As an elementary teacher I always struggle with how to teach art. I sure wish our school had an art teacher! Thanks again.
I think this is really good art class
Just wanted to send a big THANK YOU for posting this lesson. I am a volunteer 5th grade art teacher and began teaching perspective last year. This year I could not get my notes on my iPad up last week and had to teach perspective from memory. I totally goofed up and felt like a failure! I sought a simpler way to teach it so I could remember and found this. I was so excited to share it with the kids and they did this project way faster-which made up for time lost doing it the wrong way.
Thanks again,
Elisha
I love these! Your directions and the samples really make it easy to follow along. Thank you!
could you do this project with another medium or do watercolors work best? Also, could this project be done in say an hour?
You can use whichever medium you like best, but for these results, you may want to consider the watercolors. This lesson is a bit complicated for most 5th graders. If you reduced the paper size, perhaps some students could finish in an hour. It also depends how many students are in your class. More students=longer time.
Great idea. What size paper is this??
I think it’s a shame schools have either no time or very little time for art. One session every other week is horrible. Schools think art isn’t as valuable as “core” subjects, but for some it could be EVERYTHING!This project is important for many skills.
where can I buy the one point perspective for the city?
I don’t have that lesson for sale. You can access a desert perspective lesson inside the membership.
What a great lesson! I was wondering how do you evaluate your students art work? What criteria were you looking for during this project?
Thank you
Hi Kayla,
While I didn’t have to assess my students, criteria might include: did my students follow the basic rule of perspective? (small objects close to the horizon line, large objects close to viewer) or did my students create a horizon line?
Screw it
Love it! I’ve taught perspective drawing before but I like the watercolor twist! Thanks
I have been charged with teaching perspective to children ages 6 – 8. Any ideas, PLEASE?!
This is a great question to ask in our free facebook group: Here’s a link > https://www.facebook.com/groups/DSSstudents/
Hello, I am an art teacher and I would like more information, thank you
We’re taking this class in tenth grade in a specialized high school.
hi
nice i got it now
WOW! These students did an exceptional job!
Do you have a rubric that goes with this assignment? If so, would love to see it!!
This is great!
Fantastic
very good
It is wonderful!
Thank you so much!
Just wondering what size paper was used for this. Great lesson !
Hi Helen, any size works!
The original lesson recommends bigger paper because it’s easier for children to paint within their lines 🙂
-Hannah (Team Sparkle)
liked it and drew it in my notebook
i really liked it was amazing
This is so cool!!!!!!!!!!
Can you recommend a great children’s illustrated book to accompany this lesson? I’m really struggling to find a children’s book with excellent linear perspective.
This comment is really late, but hopefully will help for the future. For a book recommendation, what if you approached the idea of “perspective” in general instead of just linear perspective? “They All Saw a Cat” comes to mind.
that is so cool i am going to do this
Your students did a beautiful job on these! They really look spectacular!
I loved it!
Amazing lesson!? Thanks for sharing Do you think we can use colored pencils instead of watercolor?
Hi Devorah! This is Bethany from Team Sparkle. Great question. You can use whichever medium you like best, but for the results you see in the pictures watercolors would probably work best!
I, a 79 year old woman, am going to try this. Thank you. — Rita at ritamackall@comcast.net
Thanks so much! Very helpful since I’m new to teaching art!
I did this project with my 2nd grade Art club after school! We learned all the elements of art and we did this as our final project after we learned about the element of space. They did amazing! I can’t wait to display them in our final art show.