Perspective Drawing Handbook. [Hardcover]

Joseph D'Amelio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1972 | ISBN-10: 0814802354 | ISBN-13: 978-0814802359

Perspective creates a sense of space, depth, and the third dimension within the limitations of the flat drawing surface. This unusually comprehensive handbook integrates extensive text with hundreds of labeled drawings and diagrams; each page covers a fundamental principle and includes relevant constructions. All aspects of perspective drawing are discussed, from diminution, foreshortening and convergence to distortion, measurement, and shade and shadow effects. Essential concepts such as horizon line, vanishing point, cone of vision, and picture plane are explained theoretically and illustrated in practical contexts, using both mechanical and freehand sketching techniques. With its step-by-step presentation of professional working methods and practices, Perspective Drawing Handbook is an essential text and reference for fine and commercial artists, architects, engineers, and interior and industrial designers.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Amiel Book Distributors Corp (April 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814802354
• ISBN-13: 978-0814802359
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,462,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indespensible perspective reference:, June 19, 2000

By 

Carol Cullar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perspective Drawing Handbook (Paperback)

D'Amelio has laid out the basics of mechanical perspective drawing in easy to follow steps with clear illustrations. Readily adaptable to instruction for the general audience and eminently practical with illustrations for many basic and more complex perspective problems, the text is well organized as well as intertaining. I have used this text to teach perspective in high school drawing classes for 15 years.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slender, but without question the FINEST of all introductions on PERSPECTIVE, June 28, 2004

By 

Bruce Bain "Romans 9:33/Remember Jackie Robinson" (Englewood, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perspective Drawing Handbook (Dover Art Instruction) (Paperback)

"PERSPECTIVE DRAWING HANDBOOK" by Joseph D`Amelio

Amelio really packed this book with well-illustrated covering of Perspective in Black & White. Better still, D`Amelio manages to keep text down to the bare essentials, preferring to illustrate the point rather than describe it. Fascinating. Nicely put together, and very concise at 96 pages. I really liked it.

Suggested retail at $8.95 this is a good reference, and eminently affordable. It seemed quite deserving of FIVE STARS for making an obscure subject clear to the general public with a direct, no-nonsense approach. What Stephen Rogers Peck does for anatomy, is what D'Amelio does for teaching PERSPECTIVE.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!... It's my #1 choice in my Top 3 perspective books..., November 6, 2006

By 

"extreme_dig_cm" (Chicago, Il USA, Amazon.com Fan!) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Perspective Drawing Handbook (Dover Art Instruction) (Paperback)

This is currently my favorite perspective book!

I love this book because it's clear, concise, slim & to the point. It's very enlightening! In my opinion, Joseph D' Amelio was a genius in his understanding of perspective & his ability to communicate this to others. The text may be a little academic by today's standards, but it's still easily worth getting. He uses the words "parallel" and "perpendicular" a lot, because he's being precise in his communication. Because this book is so slim, clear & reasonably priced, I highly recommend this to anyone & *everyone* interested in learning about perspective-based drawing. Even if it doesn't become everyone's favorite overall, it's certainly worth having in any collection, as perspective is such an important topic that it's really best to buy a number of books. And if we're going to buy a number of books, it might be helpful to know which are the *best* while at the same time being reasonably priced. This is at the top of my list!

Three-point perspective is covered here, although he actually avoids this term and instead calls this "looking up & down". It's simplistic in its approach, but that's what great teachers are about: taking difficult concepts & making them easy to understand. And as mentioned, while the writing may at times be a little stiff, this book relies mostly on visuals, which are entirely in black & white and mostly in pen & ink. Perspective Drawing Handbook: my highest recommendation!

P.S. My current Top 3 perspective books include: Perspective Drawing Handbook; Perspective Made Easy; and then Perspective! For Comic Book Artists.

P.P.S. An interesting observation: there is at least one visual error in this book. On page 55, there are common objects depicted in 3-point perspective, as often seen when we're looking down. The bed on this page has vertical lines converging in the wrong direction(!). In every other picture on this page, the vertical lines are, accurately, converging downwards. With the bed, we get the opposite(!). How this found its way into print is beyond me, but I still think this book is great.