Vanishing Points Explained

A vanishing point belongs to a direction

Railway rails, the edges of a corridor and the long side of a table are all different objects, but if they point the same way they share one vanishing point. A box that is turned at a different angle uses different points. That is why a scene can contain many vanishing points while still having only one horizon.

The Krita manual puts it neatly: a vanishing point is where any two parallel lines meet, so one-point and two-point perspective are really the same idea applied to differently turned objects.

Lines that never converge

Edges that run parallel to your paper — such as the horizontal edges of a wall facing you squarely, or vertical edges when you look straight ahead — have no vanishing point in the picture. They stay parallel to the edges of the page. This is what makes one-point and two-point perspective simpler than three-point.

How far apart should vanishing points be?

The distance between the two vanishing points of a box is tied to the viewer's field of view. Points close together behave like a very wide-angle lens: corners become sharp and the object looks stretched. Points far apart behave like a normal or long lens and look calm. A common rule of thumb is to keep both points outside the edges of the canvas.

Vanishing points above and below the horizon

Ramps, roofs and stairs slope, so their edges vanish above the horizon (going uphill) or below it (going downhill) — on a vertical line through the vanishing point of their base direction. See inclined planes. When you tilt your view up or down, vertical edges also converge, giving a third vanishing point: three-point perspective.

Moving vanishing points in the grid tool

Drag the round handles on the canvas, or type exact positions in the advanced settings. Positions are not limited to the visible frame, which makes it easy to keep two-point vanishing points comfortably wide.