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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
LESSON NOTES
This is a great exercise to improve your perspective skills, especially with organic forms like human heads. You're going to figure out the orientation of the head in space by considering a simple box, then using that box as a map for a portrait. Watch this video for tips on how to do this properly.
Practice this from the photos I've provided in the downloads tab and don't forget to submit your drawing to the community!
RELATED LINKS:
One-Point Perspective
Two-Point Perspective
How to Learn Perspective - Draftsmen S1E26
DOWNLOADS
project-portraits-in-perspective.mp4
213 MB
project-portraits-in-perspective-transcript-english.txt
5 kB
project-portraits-in-perspective-transcript-spanish.txt
6 kB
project-portraits-in-perspective-captions-english.srt
8 kB
project-portraits-in-perspective-captions-spanish.srt
9 kB
ASSIGNMENTS![]()
![Jennifer Andrews]()
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![Mariah]()
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![Vanessa White]()
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![Dana]()
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![@ndeboar]()
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![Camille Varner Kolafa]()
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![Vanessa White]()
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![Patrick Bosworth]()
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![Paul M]()
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![@ndeboar]()
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![Camille Varner Kolafa]()
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![@virus_kid]()
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![Hannah Nasby]()
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![Hayden Cremer]()
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![@eg360]()
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![Liam Gordon]()
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![Nicholas Allott]()
In this project we'll practice applying perspective to organic forms. Heads, while organic, adhere to the rules of perspective similar to boxy objects, so we'll start by constructing 3D heads. Look for clues of the angle of each axis such as angles from brow to ear, the vertical center line of the face, and the horizontal side to side angles of the features.
I've prepared a range of portrait photos for you to work with, that you could find in the downloads tab under the video. You'll notice each photo is numbered. Please label your drawings with the corresponding photo you're drawing to help me and the community give you a critique. Otherwise it would be very difficult to know which box matches each photo.
Level 1: Basic Box Construction
Draw a box representing a simplified version of each head.
- Try to match the orientation and dimensions of the head in the photo
- Rely on your intuition to imagine each head's rotation and dimensions
- Iterative process: Redo and refine as needed
Level 2: Head Construction
Start with a small box representation of the head, same as Level 1. Then add linear head construction with accurate perspective.
- Use primarily straight lines to draw, emphasizing plane changes
- Find angles in the organic shape that correlate with the simple box (ex: top and back of the head)
- Observe, analyze, then draw
- Avoid drawing tiny heads; aim for at least 4 inches in height
Deadline: Submit by 1/15/2024 for a chance to be in the critique video!
This assignment was really fun but also really hard for me. I am not soo good at third perspective, so I tried my best! I did a few of these (the number connect with the photos), and I think I did better than I thought I would! 💗
Doooone. This lesson fried my brain. I’m seeing literal blockheads everywhere I go now. For the level one, I definitely did a few over again. I found that I got better towards the later ones. My line quality improved and the whole convergence concept really started to click. But the level 2 assignment was when it all came together for me. I chose 2 poses I knew would challenge me. The one of the guy (14 I think?) was tough, and I know his proportions on my sketch are off (eyes really big, chin too short, angle is slightly off…) but I thiiiink the perspective is correct. It’s at least better than my first attempt of drawing him before watching the demo video. With the level 2 assignments, I also made a very conscientious effort to lighten up on my lines until I was confident with the placement and I slowed down. Each took me about an hour to complete.
This assignment was a doozy but I feel like it made a huge difference in how I’m able to interpret my drawings! I threw in some John Singer Sargent studies to break up the monotony and found that even those are better because I’m understanding 2 point perspective and applying it to the subtle tilt of the faces. Feedback appreciated 😊
@Camille Varner Kolafa
@Patrick Bosworth
I was struggling with estimating roughly where the lines should go when completing the boxes. I’m drawing using Procreate but I don’t want to rely on the drawing assist tool. I’ve been practicing eyeballing the angle (to close the boxes) for few days. I think the proportions and angles are probably not accurate to the portraits, but LORDDDDD I’m happy enough that most of the converging angles/lines are correct (I checked each after finishing the drawing by drawing the lines to the VPs). I’ll need to work on the proportions and angles next. But for now, I’m quite happy with my current accuracy. Not perfect, but close enough 🥲🥲🥲 (I hope I'm checking them correctly tho?! Needed to make the boxes smaller on my Procreate canvas to extend the lines so sometimes I wasnt entirely sure if they are accurate lol)
I did several but definitely started too small (missed the 4 inch height instruction oops). For me it help to visualize the front of the face first and using the line of the eyes or brows to find the rectangle and tilt of it. I found myself exaggerating angles more often than not at first. Would greatly appreciate some feedback!
I modeled a "real" 3d box (im a 3d artist by trade) and pushed out the congergance lines.
Interesting to see how little the Y axis converges. They are virtually parallel.
Before I did this, I was pushing the Y convergence way to much.
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7d
This is really neat! 3D tools can be so helpful.
I need help and guidance again, please. 😭
i feel quite lost and confused and not sure if I’m understanding 2pp correctly, and I’m really breaking down😭😭😭😭😭😭
This is my sketch for the first reference. I wasn’t sure if I got it right so I took a look at Stan’s demo before proceeding to the next drawing, and I feel like it’s quite different from Stan’s drawing? For example, in Stan’s drawing, the top plane wasn’t so distorted/converging as much. Is it just that we have different vanishing points, or am I doing something wrong?
also, I think for these portraits, I can’t really find the “vanishing points”. I can have a guess, but is it right for me to draw without establishing the vps?
if there are any additional tips that can help with this learning, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much for helping a struggling student. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
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7d
Some great observations from @Paul M here. Perspective is tough, so give yourself some grace with this skill, it takes some time to absorb and execute all of the information.
You don't always need to draw vanishing points on your page, but when you're getting started it helps to trace off your lines to see how they converge in the distance and make sure you're hitting a common vanishing point. If I'm drawing without actually placing these vanishing points I like to put something in my periphery or mark somewhere on my drawing board to give myself a target to aim my converging lines toward.
I did a draw over of your cube to show where you're on point, and where you're getting a little skewed. Your closest vertical line, the line hitting the corner of the brow, is spot on! You can feel that bump on corner of your own brow where the side of your head meets the front of the face. This is a great landmark to look for to place this vertical line for the cube.
In two-point perspective, you have two vanishing points for your horizontal lines. Your horizontal lines going left will converge to a common vanishing point (LVP), your horizontal lines going right will converge to a common vanishing point (RVP), and your vertical lines will all remain parallel with no convergence.
From the vertical line you established on the corner of the brow, try to find the "Y" of the next two closest lines on the top plane of the box. These guide lines will help you place the rest using the features as landmarks. It helps to look for the angles of the hair line, brow, nose, and chin, and trace them off towards their respective vanishing points. These lines will all converge to a common vanishing point, but the convergence is subtle.
The distortion of your cube is caused by your vanishing points being close together, so the convergence is exaggerated. The further apart you place the vanishing points, the less exaggerated the convergence. It helps to draw through your box to reveal the hidden side like you have x-ray vision. When you can see how your lines converge on the hidden side it can show you where you're off!
Keep practicing, and take a look at the demos/critiques for this lesson, Stan will give a lot of tips for these common struggles in those lessons! Also, check out the Zolly app if you're looking for some perspective practice, there are a bunch of free basic shapes to get you started. Hope this helps!
https://www.proko.com/zolly-app
You do indeed have closer vanishing points creating tighter angles (not right or wrong necessarily. You also have a little bit of convergence going in the vertical lines you're almost in 3 point creating some of the skew.
This is the mind feeling its difficult to map the angles and planes of a curved head to a box :) and it is difficult
iirc the exercise was to contain the head in a 2pp box, not so much map all the angles of the head and face (there are so many.) So in that case not every part of your boxes planes will be in contact with the planes of the head.
You'll learn to carve the curves/shapes out of the 2pp boxes later. My advice would be to draw some more 2pp boxes and then try this exercise again. You're getting frustrated with the learning curve, there's a reason it takes people 10-20 years to create masterful art, enjoy the journey
Keen to try level two, but just want to make sure these are vaguely correctly first.
Im trying to make the lines converge in the right direction, so things further from the camera are smaller.
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8d
The middle portrait looks accurate, but I would revisit the first and last ones. I think on the first one, the plan on the side should be a little more narrow and diagonally downwards, and the front plane should be more front facing. Your box looks more turned to the right than the model's face is. On the last one, try angling the box down more. I think we should be seeing more of the top of the box.
I plan to return to these at some point again in order to try varying the sizes of each plane to better help with the perspective, really tough one overall.
This exercise was so hard! 😭It also feels like the essentials to all art, and I wish this kind of 3d thinking came easier to my brain. I had so much trouble seeing the boxes in the heads and also kept struggling with horizon lines/ 2d perspective. Very confusing. Trying to do level 2 did not go well 😑
I found the heads surprisingly tricky! But after doing a few i felt myself loosen up and each one became easier to see the box.
This was a lot trickier than I thought it was going to be. But here are some of the boxes I drew. At one point I ended using a different page to experiment how much the boxes would move relative to each other
Hi! When drawing the box, is the top supposed to indicate the top of the cranium or the 1/4 section where the hairline starts? In the video he uses both. Also, how do I make sense of the boxiness of the head given the skull protrudes slightly on the sides? He cuts the form at the eyebrows, typically, but the head continues out from this area he's indicating. Thank you!
I think either is ok. Imagine the head was turned into a box, then the top could be flattened down and the sides stretched out or even vice versa. Just choose the abstraction you prefer and fits a box as much as it can. The main aim is to get the perspective and approximate overall shape of the box correct.
