Linear Perspective is a subject I have a lot to say about and have lot of weird feelings about. Honestly I have too much to say about, this is my third attempt writing a post about this subject because my previous ones all got too long and unruly, so I'll try to keep this one simpler.

Linear Perspective is a popular method to create an illusion of space in a two dimensional image. Typically linear perspective will have one or two "vanishing points", in which all lines on the drawing should originate from. You can use this to calculate scale of objects, depth, and it creates a mostly realistic space.

There was a brief period where I was very anti-linear perspective, although I have since realized it's got many used and my issues were more how it's talked about rather than using it in art. I do now sometimes use very rough version of linear perspective where I don't have a formally designated vanishing point but I'll have lines roughly converge but I never use a ruler or calculate where things go to anymore. These are just my personal choices and if you want to do very technical drawings I have no issues with that.

Anyway, as I mentioned, despite having come to accept linear perspective somewhat, I still have many issues with how it's talked about online and in general. Lot of this I think comes from art tutorials and certain teachers who teach linear perspective as the only valid form of perspective and something that must be used in order to make good art. Equating liberal perspective to the only form of perspective obscures many other forms of perspective which have been used around the world and throughout history which could be very useful for many people today. (Previous version of this post I tried to list and define many alternatives to linear perspective, but that got way too long and it would also be easier to understand if you could have image examples which I can't do here.) Linear perspective also has a few limits and sometimes it's not the right choice, especially when working with technical accuracy, you might end up having to sacrifice a better composition, even classic European painters though would bend rules of perspective if it made a better product. Linear Perspective is also very static, it implies a very stationary point of view, and to fully experience the illusion you often have to view the painting from the exact angle. Something I think the Chinese and Japanese artists understood better than the European artists (who were the ones mostly using linear perspective), is that when you are observing a space, your eye actually moves around as you look at different things.

This was a very informal post and all of this is stuff that if you are interested in I'd recommend doing further reading. A few things I had to cut also like lot of information on history of linear perspective or some specific critiques I have seen online that I disagree with. Hopefully this is useful for someone, especially hope someone who always wanted to draw backgrounds or scenery in their art, but was intimated by all the technical stuff, you don't actually have to do all that. It's good to know how to use linear perspective still if you ever need it, but also check out other art like modernist and contemporary painters or art from around the world outside of Europe. Don't get caught up in all the rules and stuff that art tutorials tell you, they do often have useful information, but think of them more as suggestions or someone sharing their own process. Don't get caught up with perfection and try to discover what kind of art you really love and not just what people tell you is good.