1. Explain the term picture plane.
2. Outline two importance of perspective.
3. State the relationship between horizon and eye-level.
4. Give two principles of perspective.

A good number of candidates were attracted to this question. While a few of them gave accurate responses, most of them gave irrelevant answers. This class of candidates gave answers that were at variance with the required answers. For example, they defined perspective and outlined its type, whereas they were expected state two principles of perspective. Most of the candidates could not articulate convincingly, the relationship between horizon and eye-level. All these led to loss of obtainable marks.
Some of the following were the responses expected from the candidates:

(a) Picture Plane
• a surface on which a composition is made.
• the actual flat surface on which the artist executes a pictorial image. e.g. canvas, paper, board, etc.
• the area filled by the images in a composition.
• it is also a transparent plane of reference that establishes the illusion of forms existing in a three-dimensional space.

(b) Importance of Perspective
• it creates the illusion of distance in a composition.
• it creates the illusion of three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface.
• it facilitates realistic representation of objects in a composition.
  

(c) The relationship between horizon and eye-level
• Horizon is an imaginary line where the earth seems to meet the sky in a landscape composition.
• Eye-level is the point in a pictorial composition, which corresponds to the level of the viewer’s eye.
• Both eye-level and horizon complement each other.
• In a landscape composition, the eye-level corresponds to the line of horizon.

(d) Principles of Perspective
• the nearer the object, the bigger, and the farther the object, the smaller it becomes to the observer.
• the closer the object, the sharper the colour, and the farther the object, the fainter ( paler) the colour.
• Equal distance between objects appears closer as the objects recede from the observer.
  Receding lines below the eye-level appear to move upward while those above eye-level appear to run downward.