Perspective Drawing of Chairs

Rules for drawing chairs in perspective.

¶ Figure the first is the profile of a chair with its proper dimensions: To draw a chair like fig. III in perspective, you must first draw the ground line E, then draw the horizontal line F, then mark your point of sight 0, from thence set off eight feet six inches to V, the point of distance; the height of the horizontal line is always five feet six inches from the ground line : Draw another line D, parallel to the ground line, for the seat of the chair; set off your dimensions at pleasure, so as to make your design look as well as possible.

¶ Suppose EE, one foot ten inches, the front of the chair, then from the point of sight 0 draw OE, 0E; then from the profile, (fig. I.) take one foot six inches and half CC, and set it off to the right hand cc, and from thence draw two lines Vcc, till they cut the ray OE; then set off the bigness of the back of your chair nn, one foot five inches and an half; on the front of the chair draw nn, etc. to the point of sight 0; those lines cc, drawn from the point of distance V, cut the visual OE; draw the lines parallel to the visual, 0nn, and where they intersect in Onn, there the back foot will fall at the seat of the chair.

¶ The distance in the profile B, one foot nine inches and a half, set off from E to bb, determines where the top of the back foot falls; the same method is taken for the bottom of the back foot. You see one foot nine inches and three quarters taken from the profile set upon the line drr; the distance m from the foot in the profile is set off upon the ground line Em, which gives the cross rail: The visual lines Onn, marked upon the ground line E, give the breadth of the back foot at the bottom; the line G, continued in g, from the corner of the chair E up to P, is one foot ten inches; from P draw a line to the point of sight, then raise two perpendiculars from bb up to P, and the line drawn from P to the point of distance V where it intersects in q, gives the determined height of the back of the chair, ttt gives the breadth of the banister at the bottom of the chair, aa in the horizontal line are two points which answer to draw the top and bottom rails of the chair, as the chairs are less behind than before.

¶ Figure IV. is a front view of a chair, and the measures set off as in the other chair, and drawn to the same point of sight and distance.

¶ Figure V. is for to take any of the chairs in the book off at large. In order to get their proper sweeps, you must first draw a middle line on the back you intend to have, then draw so many lines as are needed at an inch distance from each other, and as many at the same distance from the bottom as will go up to the top; then you will see in which of the squares the sweeps of the chairs will fall. Then in your drawing at large, you must draw as many squares as are in the little one. It is no matter how big or how little you make your chair, for you will still preserve the same proportion. So then if you observe in what squares your sweep falls in the small drawing, by observing the same in the large drawing, you may come at this or any other.

Chairs Drawing in Perspective, Plate IX

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