I need help with perspective

Whenever I draw, I notice that my work looks really "flat". I try to add shading and lighting in the appropriate spots, but to me it still has no depth.

Anyone have suggestions on how to improve on it or should I just get my eyes checked?

Get a ruler and draw a bunch of light lines all extending from the same horizen line vanishing point. Itll give you a guide to go by when youre working.

Dunno. Rulers dont do anything but get me mixed up with my perspective, so I dont like using them.

The vanishing point rule mentioned by NESAGWA is good... But that's mainly for drawings with a background like say a living room or a character in a car... There's actually a lot more rules in perspective, but I really can't remember them...

seba_boi said:

The vanishing point rule mentioned by NESAGWA is good... But that's mainly for drawings with a background like say a living room or a character in a car... There's actually a lot more rules in perspective, but I really can't remember them...

Click to expand...

Yeah theres alot more, but its really more of a drafting skill than if you just want to sit down and draw a character thing.

Forshortening really really hard.

I say just go practice drawing things with odd prespectives.

I find that, generally speaking, making something that is drawn in perspective look "right" is a lot easier than doing the same thing for a head-on pose.

As long as you follow the "farthest thing to you is small -> closest thing to you is big" rule, you can pretty much get away with anything in perspective, whereas when you draw a regular pose, you have to put extra effort into making sure that one arm isn't smaller/bigger than the other. This goes double for animation, where keeping the proportions of whoever it is you are animating the same size gets harder the farther along you get. Perspective poses are obviously more dynamic so it never hurts to do use them, even when not really needed.

The main rule to follow with perspective is, as I said, the farthest thing away from you is small and parts of the body should get progressively bigger the closer they get to you. Depending on what kind of pose it is, you can pretty much bend most rules after that.

Buildings and such are a completely different ballgame though, and the rules for those are very strict.

hermegildo said:

I find that, generally speaking, making something that is drawn in perspective look "right" is a lot easier than doing the same thing for a head-on pose.

As long as you follow the "farthest thing to you is small -> closest thing to you is big" rule, you can pretty much get away with anything in perspective, whereas when you draw a regular pose, you have to put extra effort into making sure that one arm isn't smaller/bigger than the other. This goes double for animation, where keeping the proportions of whoever it is you are animating the same size gets harder the farther along you get. Perspective poses are obviously more dynamic so it never hurts to do use them, even when not really needed.

The main rule to follow with perspective is, as I said, the farthest thing away from you is small and parts of the body should get progressively bigger the closer they get to you. Depending on what kind of pose it is, you can pretty much bend most rules after that.

Buildings and such are a completely different ballgame though, and the rules for those are very strict.

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He pretty much nailed it. One thing I like to do is keep a reference point.

My experience is mainly in drafting and not art but I can give you some pointers.

• 
  [*]Vanishing point
• Using an F lead, you can make faint lines to extend towards the vanishing point that won't be seen by most casual observers. You need not extend the line all the way to the point, one can simply create the angled line to complete a shape. I usually trace the line with an F lead, and follow up to complete the shape with an HB or B lead.
• Cabinet
• Cabinet drawings are isometric drawings with the projected sides at 80% full scale. This method sometimes will look more correct to the eye, but will not retain the scalar qualities of a true isometric drawing.
• Proportioning
• You can easily proportion a side of an object in perspective by using a projection line. The projection line is 45 degrees in relationship to the object and extension lines are drawn to form points to the projection line. Once something is projected to a point on the projection line, simply project again at a right angle to the initial line to properly place the point in the side view.
  [*]Shading
• Gourand shading is using a single light source and simply projecting the shadows onto the planes used. It is often times faster and easier to use visualization than to go through the arduous task of projecting line after line.
• Omni
  Omni shading is similar to the effects of something being outside on a sunny day. All shadows fall to the ground is a scalar measure. You can easily project the largest side and simply proportion the rough outline of the object to achieve a believable result.

one thing that a lot of beginners overlook when drawing is that the things further in the background should be less detailed and drawn using a lighter hand.

you can draw vanishing point guidlines til the cows come home, but if the stuff in the background is as detailed or darker than stuff in the foreground, it's gonna look crappy.

If you're capable of thinking mathematically and being methodical in your drawing- then a perspective art book will help you. (Or a class- if you can find one that will cover perspective in depth)

If you're not like that (like me for example) then just keep trying odd, extreme perspectives- copy stuff from magazines if you have to. The more you do it- the better you will understand how to make the illusion yourself.

It can be a right vs. left brain thing.

Just thought I'd resurrect this thread...

By Johannes Vloothuis:

. Place objects so they overlap.
. Atmospheric perspective. Colors get cooler (bluer) and lighter in value as they recede into the background. They get warmer and the dark values become darker as they get closer. Note. In nature this doesn’t always prove to be right. When we look at a tree that is 100 yards away it will still be dark and a warm green. The value shift will be very subtle in comparison to a tree right next to you. This slight difference wouldn’t even show in a photo. If you paint it this way you won’t be creating the illusion of depth. However, If you add more mauve or blue to your greens as well as lighten them, this will push them farther into the distance. The more you apply this concept the further they will recede. Simulate it is a humid day with a lot of moist in the air. This has to be exaggerated to a point.
. Elements are smaller and less defined in the distance than in the foreground.
. Create at least three planes. Each should have a predominant value. Usually known as foreground, middle ground, and background.
. Linear perspective.
. Subtract texture from objects that are in the background.

Thanks for posting those vanishing point pics. I've been doodling here and there, and there's slightly more substance than before.

I'm still gonna get my eyes checked eventually though.

Quite honeystly Domino I think you're problem isn't perspective but rather volume. You should put time into being able to draw 3D. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the square, sphere, cylinder etc. you will not be sorry.

As for shading, take an egg and light it from a certain side and then shade away. This will really help.

As for finding where to shade, I think it was Andrew Loomis who said "why create light?", just find some reference for your shadind needs.

Actually I'm familiar with shading and 3-D objects due to some outside art classes when I was younger. The problem is that I can draw pyramids, cubes, etc. 'til the cows come home, and when I do them in the traditional "wire" form they appear 3-D to me. When I try to shade them, they look flat again.

Coloring is a different story though. My drawings look more solid and 3-D when I add colors. It's the black and white that's giving me fits.

I'll give shading more practice, that is if I can find my damn tortillian (I forget how it's spelled)...

Somethign that may screw you up, especially in regards to the human figure is foreshortening, which is how limbs look shorter when turned towards the perspective of the viewer. You can fix this by taking pictures of your self pointing towards the camera with a body part and then drawing it...

Domino-chan said:

Whenever I draw, I notice that my work looks really "flat". I try to add shading and lighting in the appropriate spots, but to me it still has no depth.

Anyone have suggestions on how to improve on it or should I just get my eyes checked?

Click to expand...

Well...I'm not a really versatile artist (like Hermegildo) but when it comes to giving the images some "weight" I think I can offer a few tidbits of advice.

1. Like VT already said, pick a perspective; either blurr the shit thats further away and sharpen the foreground, or do the exact opposite. With a face, try using heavy lines on the parts that are not so close, like the ears, eyes etc. and use light lines for the nose, chin, the front of eyelids, etc.

2. With the lines you use for shading, make it wrap around the contours of whatever you are drawing, like arms, breasts, whatever.

3. Get a system down....don't copy anyone elses drawings, its like you're either gonna write some equation down in a book, or you're actually gonna do the math. Do your due diligence, take the things that you hate drawing, and draw the fuck out of them until it becomes second nature.


I'm at a school now So, all I have is an art project from a few years back where I drew some fuckers face. Perspective/proportions may be fucked, because of the head moving around....but the wieghting is alright, no?