Creating 3D: Techniques to create the illusion of depth in 2D media

Creating 3D is a series of activities exploring techniques artists use to create the illusion of three dimensional depth on a flat page:

• Overlap
• Relative Size
• One Point Perspective
• Shade and Shadow

Each resource can be used as a standalone activity within a lesson, or combined to form a sequence in order to build a progression of techniques.

The final activity challenges pupils to draw a room using one-point perspective and the other techniques they have learned.

These resources were originally produced for use in school workshops for the Thinking 3D exhibition t the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford. The exhibition explored the influence of Leonardo da Vinci and his contemporaries on how people thought about and represented three dimensions in art, architecture, anatomy, astronomy and geometry. We have now made them available online for teachers to use in school.