Assignment - How to Draw With Depth and Proximity
$209.06
$278
You save $68.94
Bundle discount Each additional course part in your cart adds 3% off all courses, up to 15% off.
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
Our best value of the year.
Deal good through December 6th.
Through Dec 6
I Teach Creatives
assignments 141 submissions
Fun and super helpful assignment!
For the first 6 image pairs I looked at and recreated the far version, then I imagined the close version. For the last 6 image pairs I did the opposite.
Two things that were really insightful:
1. The way the backgrounds on the images changes (super diminished in the close views).
2. The way the the horizontal planes of the object become much more narrow on the far views (like the pancakes getting closer to the horizon).
LESSON NOTES
What's in Premium?
This lesson gives you the skills to control depth and space. I'll show you how to think like a photographer to make your drawings more believable. You'll learn how different camera lenses, like wide-angle and telephoto, can be used to either expand space for dramatic depth or compress it for a flattened effect.
We'll cover the crucial difference between zooming and moving closer to a subject, a concept that will change how you compose your scenes.
Get this lesson and more in the premium course!
DOWNLOADS
assignment-how-to-draw-with-depth-and-proximity.mp4
352 MB
assignment-how-to-draw-with-depth-and-proximity-transcript-english.txt
8 kB
assignment-how-to-draw-with-depth-and-proximity-transcript-spanish.txt
9 kB
assignment-how-to-draw-with-depth-and-proximity-captions-english.srt
14 kB
assignment-how-to-draw-with-depth-and-proximity-captions-spanish.srt
17 kB
ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![Jasper Meadows]()
![]()
![Ronald Moss Jr]()
![]()
![Daniela]()
![]()
![@writedrawface]()
![]()
![Maria Bygrove]()
![]()
![Maestro]()
![]()
![Carlos Pérez]()
![]()
![@treekin]()
![]()
![Worldblox]()
![]()
![Tori Tempo]()
![]()
![Tori Tempo]()
![]()
![Ishaan Kumar]()
![]()
![Ishaan Kumar]()
![]()
![Angelica]()
![]()
![Smithies]()
![]()
![Sita Rabeling]()
![]()
![Anthony Hernandez]()
![]()
![Lin]()
![]()
![Dooby]()
Use a pair of the provided photos: one taken from far away with a long lens, and one taken up close with a wide lens.
- Choose one of the photos and draw it.
- Now, without looking at the second photo, try to draw the other view from your imagination.
- When you're done, compare your drawing to the second photo to see how you did.
As you work, pay close attention to how the foreground and background change. Notice how vanishing points also shift. They move farther apart in the distant view and get closer together in the close-up view. This exercise will train your brain to see and create believable space in your drawings.
Deadline - submit by Nov 02, 2025 for a chance to be in the critique video!
I'll be honest I was very intimidated going into this exercise, but I actually found myself able to make sense of it! I drew the distant view from reference, then imagined the closeup. The main areas where I noticed that I fell short were: not changing the viewing angle enough, and failing to make the bench change in scale. Since the bench is closer to us than the piano, in the closeup it gets much larger, but I drew it basically the same size as the far shot, which makes it lose that feeling of closeness.
Well, in the first two image; I tried to reverse it. In the second two images; I tried a front view and then a worm's eye view with the house sitting near the edge of the table.
I welcome all criticism, but please keep it positive. Thank you.
These are a bit sloppy and rushed, nothing is really an excuse but my health today has not been amazing and I didn't want to delay yet another week. But it is just yet another pin for places where to come back to learn more from
HELP WANTED:
Hi! I've been struggling with this assignment and am desperate for advice. From what I've done so far, I really struggle to draw the other view (be it far or close) from imagination, even after drawing one from reference. It feels like I either draw them from the wrong angle, or draw planes that shouldn't be exposed. I understand the concept of a widening field of vision the closer you get and how objects flatten in the distance (picture planes helped with that), but I can't seem to get this. I would really appreciate any tips or advice anyone can offer. Thank you!
I had to step back from the course for a while and now I'm trying to quickly catch up. This whole module was an eye-opener for me and I found this assignment to be a great exercise. In most cases, I didn't push it enough but I feel that I now understand what to look out for.
Feels like there is still more space to exaggerate perspective. Thanks for the lesson!
I saw a glimpse of the original pictures before trying to draw them by imagination.
i tried to re-interpret the close view with not that good spatial understanding
Good lesson, Gave it a shot. And I think I did okay and places and the first ones were roughest. Which were the tennis court and the volley ball park I think.
After drawing these objects, i came to the conclusion that far objects look more flat and a little bit more isometric while closer objects are more exaggerated
These are very challenging! I've done 4 so far, but I want to do all of them to really get the concept fully ingrained.
2 more. I've noticed that I'm "tilting the camera" when attempting to draw the up close view. I will work on maintaining the trajectory parallel to the ground plane.
Here are my submissions.
For the piano, I got it more or less right but didn't consider a wide angle treatment.
For the truck, I went all wide angle when I didn't need to and went closer to the left rear corner than I needed to.
For the fire hydrant, I went wide angle when I didn't need to.
I think I did best on the bird house, for which I made 2 just in case and I think the correct one was somewhat their average?
Here's the horse statue. I think I was able to get a better gauge of distance with this one.
Here is my assignment. I think I get the idea but it was harder than i thought. It felt like I had started to get it. Think about the depth and move the vp further or closer to each other, right?
Apart from the fact that figuring out how much the depth changes is tricky and I don’t tend to push it enough. Sometimes I was surprised at how much it can change. I also realized after some figuring out that if you are looking at something at an angle and move closer, the horizon line also changes. I feel lost trying to imagine that change.
Gah, I didn’t manage to finish the second half of this assignment, but i got 4 done… Here are my near to far. I am about a mile off… but things are starting to make more sense. I’ll finish the assignment at some point I promise!
I agree with Lin, the big difference here is the elevation. So as we move closer to the volleyball net we are also moving down into the sandpit, our eyeline is at a lower elevation which lowers the horizon line. The tennis court images are a really good example of this as we move from a high elevation in the stands to a lower elevation on the court.
Because the plan projection view doesn't give us any information on the viewer elevation, I didn't account for it in my assignment, but your study here and the trajectory lesson are good reminders to think in all 3 dimensions. I'll have to keep this in mind, thanks!!
This is something I noted down in my observations too but it seems the HL moves down when we are close to an object. Because our eyeline is going to be lower and lower as the vision closes in on the structure or something something, I could be wrong. XD At least closeups feel more dynamic with a low HL so that’s what I use. When we look at an object up close we also have to tilt our head to see the whole thing often and that shifts the HL.
Keeping the trajectory straight is difficult for some reason. I gotta revisit this assignment again in the future at some point
