1-Point Perspective, VP always in the middle?

#1

Hey guys I need some help here.
I jumped into learning perspective from the ground up and came across a question that made me think:

In basic 1-Point Perspective many people put the VP (vanishing point) randomly on the HL (horizon line), but … doesn’t it have to be in the exact middle of the HL to be One-Point?

I know this might be more of a technical question and not really an artistic one, but isn’t every scene with a VP not in the exact middle of the HL at least in theory 2-Point Perspective?
I hope someone understands my question and can me help out here.

#2

Technically, one-point perspective’s vanishing point should be at the dead center of the horizon line, because we’re assuming the “viewer” of the image is “looking” at the scene in the image as if he’s actually there. But when you see people put the vanishing point not at the center, it works too, and this is because in that situation, we’re no longer assuming the viewer is looking at the scene as if he’s there. What we’re seeing instead, if a crop of a scene showing only part of what a person would actually see if he stood in the scene.

This link explains it pretty well: http://www.benzilla.com/?p=3683

So no, just because the VP is not in the middle of the HL doesn’t mean it has to more than one-point in the perspective. It really depends on whose point-of-view you’re trying to portray in the image. It’s not technically wrong–it’s just a different way of presenting a scene. It might not feel natural to everyone, but some people don’t really notice it.

#3

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