VANISHING
POINT
BY C. C. BECK
In perspective, theoretically the vanishingpoint is at infinity, and therefore unattainable.But reality is different; vanishment occurs a lotsooner than theory suggests ...
Illustrated by Martinez
hat? Oh, that's a perspectivemachine. Well,not exactly, but that'swhat I call it. No, Idon't know how itworks. Too complicated for me.Carter could make it go, but after hemade it he never used it. Too bad; hethought he'd make a lot of moneywith it there for awhile, while he wasworking it out. Almost had me convinced,but I told him, "Get it toworking first, Carter, and then showme what you can do with it betterthan I can do without it. I'm doingpretty well as is ... pictures sellinggood, even if I do make 'em all byguesswork, as you call it." That'swhat I told him.
Y'see, Carter was one a themartists that think they can work everythingout by formulas and stuff. Me,I just paint things as I see 'em. Neverworry about perspective and all thatkinda mechanical aids. Never evenwent to Art School. But I do all right.Carter, now, was a different sortaartist. Well, he wasn't really an artist—moreof a draftsman.
I first got him in to help me with aseries of real estate paintings I'd gotan order for. Big aerial views of landdevelopments, and drawings of buildings,roads and causeways, that kindastuff. Was a little too much for meto handle alone, 'cause I never studiedthat kinda things, ya know. I thoughthe'd do the mechanical drawings,which shoulda been simple for anybodytrained that way, and I'd throwin the colors, figures and trees and soon. He did fine. Job came out good;client was real happy. We made apretty good amount on the job,enough to keep us for a couplamonths without working afterwards.I took it easy, fishing and so on, butCarter stayed here in the studio workingon his own stuff. I let him keepan eye on things for me around theplace, and just dropped in now andthen to check up.
The guy was nuts on the subject ofperspective. I thought he knew allthere was to know about it already,but he claimed nobody knew anythingabout it, really. Said he'd been studyingit for years, and the more helearned about it the more there wasto learn. He used to cover big sheetsof paper with complicated diagramstrying to prove something or otherto himself. I'd come into the studioand find him with thumb tacks andstrings and stuff all over the place.He'd get big long rulers and drawlines to various points all over theroom, and end up with a little drawingof a cube about an inch squarethat anybody coulda made in a half aminute without all the apparatus.Seemed pretty silly to me.
Then he brought in some books onmathematics and physics and otherthings, and a bunch of slide rules,calculators, and junk. He musta beena pretty smart guy to know how tohandle all those things, even if he waskinda dopey about other things. Youknow ... women and fishing andsports and drinking; he was lousyat everything except working thoseperspective problems. Personally, Icouldn't see much sense to what hewas doing. The guy could draw allright already, so I asked him whatmore did he want? Lemme see if Ican remember what he said.
"I'm trying to get at things as theyreally are, not as they appear," hesaid. I think those wer