Chapter 8: Sensation and Perception "All In Perspective"

Introduction
Students have read about how our brains and senses work together to organize and interpret information into meaningful experiences. In this exercise, students will research how artists use the principles of perceptual organization and depth cues to make two-dimensional drawings appear three-dimensional.

Lesson Description
Students will use information from the Tutorials in Sensation and Perception Web site to learn about the methods that give depth to artists' drawings. Students will read about the depth cues of relative height and size, texture gradient, aerial perspective, and interposition. They will also read about the use of figure-ground perception in art and read discussions about the works of Sandro Botticelli, M. C. Escher, Seurat, and others. Students will then answer four questions and apply this information by making a drawing using the principles of perceptual organization and depth cues.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will be able to outline the principles and depth cues involved in perception.
2. Students will be able to use this knowledge to make a drawing, listing the principles and depth cues used within the sketch.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. Interposition, or overlapping, simulates depth by partially blocking a more distant object with a nearer object. Interposition, combined with shadowing, can give drawings a sense of three-dimensionality.
2. M.C. Escher played with people's perceptions of art by challenging traditional figure-ground relationships. He created impossible figures ("Climbing and Descending") and drawings in which only one set of stimuli tends to be perceived at a time ("Moebious with Birds"). Because the brain seeks to discriminate between the figure and ground—for example the white birds from the black background—we tend to perceive only the figure or the ground even though both figure and ground are equally present.
3. The more distant an object, the smaller the image of that object will be on your retina. Artists use this same concept in painting by making a more distant object smaller within their picture. This is called relative size. Relative height is related to the horizon within the painting. The more distant the object, the closer to the level of the horizon it will appear. Conversely, the closer the object, the lower it will appear on the horizon.
4. Within a painting, the objects that are more distant will appear to have less texture than the objects that are closer. For example, a dirt road close up is full of pebbles and holes, but as it winds from view, its texture becomes finer and smoother. Aerial perspective is the term used to describe the phenomenon that distance affects the clarity and color tinting of an object. An object in the distance appears more blue and blurry than something up close.
5. Students' drawings will vary. Students should portray and list principles of perceptual organization such as figure-ground, interposition, relative height and size, and so on in their drawings

Student Web Activity