Vanishing Point in Wall Mural Painting

Video Transcript

"So, once you've got a design that you're happy with and you're ready to start putting it up on the wall, the most important thing is the vanishing point. This is going to determine the perspective for the entire piece, and this is what will either make or break the illusion of your mural. Now looking behind me, this particular mural has a vanishing point that is right there. Now what most people don't realize, the vanishing point is the most important part of the mural. This is going to set the perspective for the mural. What that means is it's going to determine the viewpoint that's going to make or break the illusion. Now it's hard to see on this wall, but I've got a sketch here. It's hard to see on the mural but I've got a sketch here. The vanishing point is a point on the horizon at which all parallel lines converge. So, for example, the balustrade, the tiles, the line of the roof will all converge at a single point, and that is what creates depth in the picture plane. Now, generally, the vanishing point is going to be at eye level. Now the vanishing point changes with your perspective. It's always at your eye level. Now, obviously, with a mural like this, that's going to be viewed from various positions--sitting, standing, walking by--you can't just pick one vanishing point that's going to work from all those different perspectives. So, what I do is I split the difference. Rather than place the vanishing point at eye level, I place it at about 4 feet off the ground. This means it's sort of the average between the average person's eye level sitting and standing, so you get sort of a good split in the middle there."