Assignment - Perspective for Drawing Anything
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About instructor
I Teach Creatives
assignments 376 submissions
I’m interested in cinematic perspective for storyboarding, comics, and illustration. I’d like to develop a sense of intuitive perspective to freely control my camera in 2d space. I’d like to be able to translate my understanding and love of cinematography and lenses to my art. I particularly admire concept and storyboard artist Rick Buoen’s (@penrod_banks) use of incredibly gestural cinematic perspective in his storyboards. This opening two page spread from Arzak by Moebius feels like a huge continuous sweeping camera move. Travis Charest’s Spacegirl has some incredibly cinematic perspective. Other perspective masters I admire for their ability to place the camera in their work are David Finch, Rembert Montald, and Peter Han.
LESSON NOTES
Unlocking the Secrets of Creating Depth
In this course, you'll learn how artists turn a flat surface into a deep world. Perspective is more than just drawing boxes and buildings, it applies to everything around us. By understanding perspective, you can draw anything you imagine in any position and style.
Why Learn Perspective?
Do you get ideas for images but find them difficult to draw? Do you struggle to depict subjects from different viewpoints? Learning perspective allows you to move beyond copying what you see. You'll be able to create your own scenes and bring your visions to life.
The Foundations of Perspective
We'll start with classic perspective which is 600 years of Renaissance knowledge. Establishing strong foundations, we'll explore how basic forms like boxes and spheres can represent many objects. By adjusting these forms, you can create anything, from simple feet to complex structures.
The Power of Imagination
When you draw from imagination, you create your own worlds. Artists who understand perspective can illustrate anything from any point of view. You'll learn how to make trees get smaller as they recede, draw people walking down a street, and render objects credibly.
Treasure Hunt Project
Your first project is to collect your favorite drawings by perspective masters. Seek out artworks that showcase perspective, like studies by Leonardo da Vinci, or environments by De Vries. Also, gather potential perspective problems you want to solve, questions and puzzles you care about. Check out the assignments tab for more info!
Examples of Perspective Problems
- How do arches get smaller as they recede? There's a science to it, and it's not difficult.
- Can you alter that science and still look credible? Yes, you can experiment while maintaining believability.
- How do you change the viewpoint of an object? Learn to draw something from a different angle.
- How do figures on a merry-go-round appear in perspective? Discover how they clump at the edges and spread out in the middle.
If you're eager to tackle these challenges, you're in the right place.
Want to learn more about perspective? Join the premium course to get access to all the lessons, demos, projects, and critiques!
DOWNLOADS
perspective-for-drawing-anything.mp4
276 MB
perspective-for-drawing-anything-transcript-english.txt
7 kB
perspective-for-drawing-anything-transcript-spanish.txt
8 kB
perspective-for-drawing-anything-captions-english.srt
12 kB
perspective-for-drawing-anything-captions-spanish.srt
14 kB
ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![Nicholas D'Angelo]()
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![Heyang Ni]()
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![Mandy]()
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![@robotjunkyard]()
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![@medrawgood]()
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![Kyan]()
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![Cai]()
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![@shigloo]()
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![Alexander Bösch]()
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![Milena Radosavljevic]()
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![@juriga]()
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![Carlos Javier Roo Soto]()
For your first project, you’ll have 2 tasks to complete.
- Collect some of your favorite drawings by perspective masters to set a standard for skill development.
- Big picture goal - think about problems you'd like to solve that require skills in perspective. Maybe drawing something from a different angle that you don't have reference for, or creating mathematically sound architecture from imagination.
I will be doing a video critique for this project, so make sure to share your thoughts with the community and you'll have a shot at being in the video!
Submit your assignments by 10/01/2024 for a chance to be in the critique video!
I want to improve my intuitive understanding and overall perspective knowledge so that I can execute ideas and create art from my imagination with less resistance and less reliance on reference. I am a painter and tattoo artist diving deeper into my dedication and love for art everyday. I am also simply passionate about learning the fundamentals of art. I feel that perspective is a building block that everything else builds upon.
I'm looking to improve my drawing skills in general. I know how important perspective is, but my knowledge of the subject is very limited. I'm starting this course with a very open mindset. I'm looking forward to learning anything that comes my way.
I'm in awe of the work of so many artists, but here are a few examples. My father being a fan of science fiction, I've admired sci-fi art since I was little. For example, I love the work of John Harris. More recently, I've been amazed by anime. For instance, I find the backgrounds created by Shuichi Kusamori to be incredibly beautiful. As a last example, I've admired paintings of Ivan Aivazovsky for many years.
As for more specific potential perspective problems I'd like to solve, I would love to learn how to simplify objects into basic primitives and how to manipulate these primitives in perspective (for example, to draw a simplified human figure). I would also love to learn the rules/logic behind creating simple backgrounds.
I want to draw humans and often find that drawing the body figure needs perspective. For example, to lift an arm and point forward, or a raising or lowering head.
I want to learn perspective to make dynamic action poses, fantasy worlds by imagination, and how to make the characters fit in there. My biggest problem is looking at the paper as 2d instead of 3d. I want to be able to look at the paper is an infinite universe. Something that feels like you are reaching into another world. For this to happen, I need to have a good perspective foundation.
Here's some treasures I picked out after searching around on Pinterest! The two figure drawings are perfect examples of how I want to be able to draw all different kinds of things - seen from above or below, with some parts being closer to add depth and dramatic effect. Right now most of my drawings feel very flat, and learning this would help me improve my art A LOT.
The 5-point perspective one is also a style I absolutely love and want to learn - but this feels very far away right now, haha. I get dizzy just looking at the grids and help lines being used to draw this way. But perhaps it can be my ultimate end goal with this course! I just love the idea of being able to bring a sketchbook anywhere and just sketch up everything around you.
I also added four paintings with more of an environmental focus, with entire landscapes and a lot of depth. I don't really draw landscapes, but I just thought these images were so beautiful and good to study from a perspective point of view. I plan to use these for the upcoming assignment 5 Tricks to Make Your Drawings Look 3D.
I'm really excited to start learning about perspective.
My questions about drawing in perspective are:
how to draw objects at a low angle
how to draw symmetrical gears
how to rotate organic shapes
how to make extreme views look believable
I’ve been wanting to take this course ever since Marshall first mentioned working on it on the podcast! I’m so excited to improve my work!
Some perspective problems I want to solve:
- A worm’s eye view of a figure towering over the camera
- Drawing figures and props on a ground plane while maintaining proportion and form
- Figures interacting in general
- Shoes! Love em but the planes drive me crazy!
- I want to create solid worlds for my characters to live out their stories in.
When looking through my art inspiration board, I realized almost none of the pictures I’ve saved included backgrounds at all! (Minus Steven Sugar’s work!) Thanks to my fellow classmates, I’ve found new artists to study, especially Moebius!
(Apologies in advance if any of these end up being AI. Pinterest is flooded with AI art lately.)
Hey all! To be honest, I echo a lot of what has been said already by my fellow classmates.
I'm super stoked to finally be able to focus on perspective after years of avoiding it. My goal is that through Marshall's sagely wisdom and guidance, and my own practice, I'll be able to improve at the following skills:
- the fundamentals of perspective
- foreshortening
- drawing from imagination
- perhaps a little bit about composition (I'd like to draw a comic one day!)
I'll see all of you in the next lesson!
Hi everyone! I'm super excited to start this course and learn more about perspective. As an aspiring cartoonist, I believe it is a very important skill to have. Just learning to draw, all the way down to the fundamentals, is very important to me so that I can reach my potential as an artist. I have a wide range of influences with just a few listed below (because listing more would take up WAY too much space).
Right now, my big picture goals are:
1. Learn how to use perspective to enhance my storytelling.
2. Be able to look at something and draw it from any angle.
3. Understand how to blend dynamism and perspective to create interesting pieces that catch the eye.
4. Be able to draw ellipses in perspective.
5. Advance my understanding of vanishing points and horizon lines and beyond.
To anyone who read all this, I wish you the best of luck in the course and achieving your future goals in art, whatever they may be!
My goal is to master perspective completely and totally; you know, like everyone else!
More specific long-term goals would be:
1. Establish a solid foundational understanding of perspective theory.
2. Gain a practical knowledge of working with organic and curvilinear forms in perspective.
3. Learn how to place multiple objects—particular organic—in a scene, together and interacting, in such a way as to create a cohesive spatial illusion.
4. Experiment with extreme and experimental styles of perspective.
My main influences come mostly from manga artists. I collected art from Takehiko Inoue, Yusuke Murata, Akihito Tsukushi, Fujimoto, along with some other styles strewn in.
I want to become good at drawing scale and chaos, and hope to draw my own story where the environment plays a big part in defining the mood. For now, I’ll be set on learning the principles of perspective before deconstructing them.
After taking a Picture Book course this year, I finally discovered my art parent — Shaun Tan. It opened the door to surrealism for me, both in visual art and in literature (I’ve also been diving into Kafka).
I’ve attached some of Shaun Tan’s work, plus pieces from artists who influenced him and others I consider “art parents.” I’m especially drawn to oil paint textures, playful scale shifts, and imaginative perspectives.
Short-Term Goal:
Learn perspective well enough to design strong settings for the storybook I’m working on.
Long-Term Goal:
Develop my art toward the surrealism I love—painting and drawing in a way that brings my imagination fully to life.
1. Shaun Tan, Image 1- 10;
2. John Brack 11, 12;
3. Jeffrey Smart 13, 14
4. Zdzisław Beksiński 15-17
5. Piotr Jabłoński 18,19
1. I am a big fan of aggressive forshortening in animation, illustration, and comics.
2. i would like to be able to create dynamic scenes in either of the forms of art mentioned in the first point. I plan to be able to draw forms in from any angle.
Hello! I really want to be able to illustrate fantasy/solarpunk backgrounds (or even just landscapes in general) because I want to create graphic novels. I need help with perspective especially with adding people into the mix for a background. I am not sure how to adjust figures so they make sense in perspective.
A lot of my inspiration comes from animation and graphic novels (anime, manga, western animation/graphic novels, etc.). I also have a lot of artists that I admire and wish my art could look like theirs. Here are some examples:
- Rainy Wu: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/YG8WXV
- YuKunLL: https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/79658856
- Maggy Lisakowski: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Dy2GO
- Kaitan: https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/2924751/artworks
- Kate Pfeilshiefter: https://www.katepfeilschiefterart.com/
- Devin Elle Kurtz: https://www.devinellekurtz.com/
- Studio Ghibli in general
- and so on
Here are some of the individual examples:
Id love to be able to draw humans and objects logically in perspective from imagination. I'm the guy in the video, who is great from observation, but I flounder from life. I also want to learn the actual tools and tricks of perspective, like when making arches or having lightposts going into the distance, how do you make sure the lightposts are the same distance from eachother? How do I make sure tiles on the ground are the same size in perspective? I want to understand the planes of the human form and be able to rotate and change those planes in perspective.
Hey there!
You have alot of good questions. Good news you are in the right course it contains everything you will need to know.
Based on your description I highly recommend to learn perspective propeply.
Marshall Vandruffs Perspective course will definetly help you out building a sense for 3D.
https://www.proko.com/course/the-perspective-course
To get a quick overview of how perspective works I highly recoommend the following link:
https://www.howtodrawcomicsacademy.com/post/the-ultimate-guide-to-drawing-in-perspective-from-simple-shapes-to-complex-objects
It covers everything you will need to know to continue with the advanced topics like figure drawing and even light and shadow. For the rest it depends how good you want to become and how easy it is for you to find information. The drawing basics course is the perfect start it contains all these topics. For more details you could visit other courses. Let me know if this helps!
best regards
Alexander
I'm so happy I have the chance to learn perspective from Marshall, I love how passionate he is on the subject. The art education I've had in school would sound something like "be creative, express yourself". When I got into college I had only the passion and love for drawing, but didn't know what is the right approach to learning, so I trusted my teachers. We had a class called analytical drawing, when it came the time to learn something about perspective, the professor gave us some good paintings as examples and said "just draw what you see". No explanation on the eye level, horizon line, vanishing points...nothing! I felt as if I'm learning how to be a writer and I want to tell a great story but I don't know any words or how to form a sentence. That's why I'm here. I want to learn the vocabulary of space we live in, from basic letters to a complete novel. I want to know the rules so well that I can forget about them and finally be able to express myself, for perspective the be a tool for help not an obstacle to solve. I'm vey excited for all of the wonderful things that'll come from this.
Just got this course because I have been trying to get better at sketching people. I've been following the Michael Hampton head construction course and I always feel like I'm lacking on perspective when drawing faces. Even when using references my faces feel flat and I found myself struggling understanding for example how the eye sits in the eye socket from different angles.
My main goal right now is to be able sketch real looking faces and people that look dynamic. I would really like to be at a point where I can focus less on thinking so hard on the perspective and more on actual design of characters.
I found some sketches from Kim Jung Gi and Karl Kopinski as well as an artist on social media, Rebelflet which showcase the use of very flowy spontaneous looking lines that still keep a very solid understanding of the perspective of the character.
Overjoyed to finally be taking this course! Woo!
Goal:
1. Create grand or intimate environments that show depth and space accurately. Completely understanding and making full use of grids and the measuring system.
2. Ability to draw and build up any object dimensionally and view it from different angles while maintaining correct proportion and form.
3. Projecting dimensionally directly from imagination.
4. Enjoy the ride!
I would really like to learn how to create scenes, both structured and unstructured. Sometimes I feel like I can get a lot better understanding of more blocky elements in terms of perspective but when it comes to organic materials sometimes it can be a lot harder to read.
I think personally in general I struggle with seeing objects as 3D objects in general especially when just viewing from a 2D image so that's something I'd love to learn along with being able to create stunning scenes and how I can apply characters within certain scenes as well. I feel like learning perspective will help me overall with both and having these images to analyze will hopefully become easier with time as I'll understand how to deconstruct some of these scenes.
My main problem with perspective is making humans feel like they fit in the environment i make, especially if the perspective is extreme, making it not feel "off" is a big goal of mine. Besides that i also want to create depth, dimensions and a neat style to go with it! Some of my inspirations are Akira Toriyama, Hajime Isayama, Makoto Yukimura, Gabriel Picolo, Arcane, and Eugene Delacroix.
Those are really nice choices. One suggestion I may offer is to pinpoint exactly what you want to learn about perspective from each Master and ask yourself: "How is this master using perspective in this picture?" and "How would I incorporate this into my art?"
Not necessary to copy, just mental notes are good enough, after all this is the theorical half of the course. In fact, your assignment for the Depth Trick session will be exactly this.
So I think is better to start analyzing works like this and later on things will click easier.
Godspeed on your journey.
