“I’ve been wanting to learn how to draw this way for a long time.” What a wonderful response from a 5th grade artist when I was introduced this project for the 1st time.

We talked about perspective and how you should be able to pull all the lines in a 1 point perspective drawing or photo back to one dot.

I demoed quickly how to draw the dot and the lines. I passed out the flat template drawings I measured and created.

We gathered in a circle, armed with pencils and rulers, and together drew our vanishing points and rectangles on the right and left walls.

I demoed how to draw a wood plank floor, a brick floor, a floor covered in a rug, etc.

Then they created their own rooms filled with their own designs, creations, and personalities. I was really impressed with the level of detail and imagination they captured in their projects.

I sold this project to them as something that fools the eye, trompe l’oeil. When it was flat it didn’t look like anything other than 1 point perspective. Let’s cut it and glue it to release the illusion…

…but no illusion. It just looked like a pyramid with the top part shaved off. I started to see the illusion accidentally when I clipped a fully constructed model onto the whiteboard and saw it from a distance.

When I used my document camera to display it on my SmartBoard, everyone was impressed with the illusion. But that’s a whole lot of steps to get there. I’m going to offer choices of a reverse perspective constructible drawing or regular 1 point perspective the next time I teach it.

We finished our pencil drawings with Sharpie and colored in with markers.

Love how they look together

My teacher example

My teacher example on the SmartBoard

So glad another art teacher, Chrissy Scarpati, tried this with her artists and shared their results on Instagram.

And Chrissy Scarpati found inspiration from Susie Belzer’s art class’s reverse perspective drawings posted on Instagram.

I’m excited to try this with another group of 5th grade artists.