drawing perspective

[YoMomma]

i’m trying to get better at drawing backgrounds and i’m just now getting into perspective drawing. i’m trying to draw a kitchen background, i believe this angle requires a two point perspective. how do i know how many vanishing points the perspective requires and also, how do i know where to set the vanishing points?

[n. tilcheff]

Hi mate,

Joseph D'Amelio's Perspective Drawing Handbook will be able to answer all your questions and lay a solid foundation to understanding the practical application of perspective.

https://www.amazon.com/Perspective-Drawing-Handbook-Dover-Instruction/dp/0486432084

Knowledge of perspective, anatomy and composition are fundamental to drawing and there are no shortcuts to that.

There are many books on the matter, but I tend to recommend this one as it is really both easily digestible and serious enough. Loomis's Creative Illustration also gives a lot of good layout advice.

--

To your question:

Vanishing points of horizontal lines are always on the horizon. 1-point and 2-point setups would give you more normal look - verticals are always drawn vertical. 3-point gives a sense of low or high view point as you also converge the verticals. The further away the VPs are from one another the more normal the perspective setup looks. The closer you bring them, the more 'forced' the look with visible distortions as if coming from a wide angle lens.

One thing that many novices and many poorly written drawing instruction manuals tend to miss is to check the layout against the Cone of vision. Of course, you can draw outside of it, but you will always get a lot of undesirable distortion there.

The thing is, if you don't have real understanding of perspective, you will not be able to take advice as you will most likely misinterpret it.

[GoryGreg]

Also to add to Nick's good book suggestion (you can never have enough) you could try 'Perspective Made Easy' by Ernest R. Norling

https://www.amazon.ca/Perspective-Made-Easy-Ernest-Norling/dp/0486404730/

If you dont prefer the paperback version I think I read you can get the digital version online somewhere free.

Also, watch lots of YouTube videos on it (I'm saying lots as some actually get perspective and vanishing points wrong!).

But of course, as they all will say, practise, practise, practise. Doing stuff (while making LOTS of mistakes along the way) is how you truly learn what you have read/watched.

Good luck!