Perspective Drawing

Intro
Anyone can learn perspective drawing. With a few simple rules you can easily learn to add the power of perspective to your own art. If you've ever read a Spiderman comic (or any other comic with an urban setting) you should be quite familar with perspective drawings of tall skyscrapers reaching for the clouds above, or Spidey standing on a rooftop looking down at the disappearing streets below from high above. In this short tutorial you will learn the basics of perspective drawing. Lets get on with it!


1- and 2-Point Perspective
Lets start with the 1-point perspective cube illustrated below. It is simply a square with a little depth added (the gray area). The dot below the cube marks the point where the lines will eventually converge. This is called a vanishing point and since there is only one dot, it is called *drumroll* 1-point perspective. Moving along to the cube below it, we can see a 2-point perspective illustration. Once again we have a cube but this time with the two opposite sides visible (the gray parts). Each side has it's own vanishing point where the lines will eventually meet. Please note the straight horizontal line below the cube connecting the two vanishing points. This is called the horizon. Easy huh?




3-Point Perspective (a bit trickier)
Imagine that the illustration below is a skyscraper viewed from above. The white skewed square is the rooftop, and the two gray areas are the sides of the building going all the way down to the streets below. Here we have three points where the lines converge, hence this is a 3-point perspective drawing. Notice how the vertical lines of both sides of the building (the gray areas) meet at the very same vanishing point below. The rooftop lines continues in two different directions until they reach their respective vanishing points.




The last few words
There you go, the basics of perspective drawing. I suggest you start by drawing basic shapes before moving on to more complex structures and details, to get it worked in really good. Once the basics are second-hand nature to you, you can always google for more perspective stuff.

Go draw!