One Point Perspective

Prior to the Renaissance (during the Middle Ages) artists were less concerned with the illusion of reality and more concerned with the content and symbolism of their work. The size of each element in the image related much more to its importance, rather than it's placement in a space. By the height of the Renaissance, artists had mastered the mathematics and visual techniques of perspective. Artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Brunelleschi were using it to great effect, giving their work a stronger illusion depth. The simplest form of perspective is one point perspective. It presumes a single point, which all others move towards, like looking down a straight road as far as you can see and lines which we know are parallel seem to converge on a single point known as the vanishing point. 

 To draw in one point perspective, Art History students drew a vanishing point anywhere on their paper. They then wrote their names or initials in block letters and the lines which are parallel were drawn to intersect at the vanishing point, creating the illusion of depth on their letters.