The Perspective Course
Understanding Perspective(101 Lessons )
Intro to Perspective
Materials to Spare You Pain
Depth Tricks and Old Masters
Intro to Forms
Orthos and One Point
Orthos and No Point
XYZ
Grids
Eye Level
The Picture Plane
Wide Angles
Bonus Lessons
Mastering the Skills(0 Lesson )
Course In Progress
Course In Progress
The picture plane is like a window that helps solve perspective problems in drawing.
Newest
Thieum
7d
Maria Bygrove
2mo
Lesson notes.
Ayesha Mahgul
2mo
Giorgi Karkuzashvili
2mo
I wonder, is it possible to project a sideview and front(back) view into the plan view. Gotta figure that out myself!
Stepka
2mo
Another handy way to do plan projection for rectangles: Use the lines bounding the rectangle only, not the viewer's sightline.
1. Extend the bounding lines of the rectangle until they intersect the picture plane. From these intersection points, drop vertical lines downward. Choose your horizon line and the level at which the rectangle will sit (i.e., the ground plane). Find where the vertical lines intersect this level line. Then, connect these points to their respective vanishing points (VPs). The resulting four lines will define the rectangle in perspective.
2. Heights can be measured at any of the four intersecting points above, since they correspond to the unforeshortened height. Place a vertical height line at any of the four points, then connect the top of this line to the respective VPs. Any or all of the four height lines will work equally well, although one is sufficient to resolve the box. You can think of this as adding “flaps” to the walls of the box, extending them until they touch the picture plane.
Stepka
2mo
3. This method also works when the rectangle touches the picture plane.
4. It also works when the rectangle extends through the picture plane toward the viewer. In this case, extend the two farther lines. The two closer lines already intersect the picture plane, so there is no need to extend them. Again, from the four points on the level line, you can erect vertical height lines and connect them to their respective vanishing points.
Here, we add "flaps" to the farther walls of the box, and use parts of the nearer walls as "flaps" to "regress" back to the picture plane.
M C
3mo
I'm rewatching all this section because i "most" my understanding of things - it will come back BUTTTTT: why is the little viewer guy in this video tilted forward? so that the Y goes away from him above and below from him? what about his eye mouvements? ok this is just a little animation but everything at proko's is done so neatly that there must be a reason - any help most welcome! 🤗 (what about his eyes going up to look at something up, doesn't it change the way Y goes away from him?I'm all confused) help needed
Andres Londono
3mo
I started this course late, but I’m really enjoying it. Marshall’s explanations are incredible, and I love his sense of humour, singing, and sound effects. The critique videos have been particularly interesting, even though I haven’t been able to participate in any of them. It’s been enjoyable to see other people’s work and have Marshall answer their questions.
This video about the Picture Plane was a mind-blower for me. It answered a lot of questions I had about perspective, especially where to place the vanishing points. I thought I had some instinctive knowledge of where these points were, like when I’m in a physical room, I “think” I can say, “These walls will have their vanishing point there.” But I couldn’t figure out how to apply that knowledge to an actual drawing. After watching the video, it was like, “Oh, of course!”
I’m looking forward to more videos like this one.
Here are two related images. The first one is some of the drawings I did for the “Eye Level” lessons, where we drew scenes or rooms from different eye levels. The second one is an attempt to replicate one of these images using what I learned in the Picture Plane lesson. I drew the room from a top view, the picture plane, the horizon line, and projected a lot of lines. It took a while to draw, but it was very interesting to see the end result and compare it to the previous images. The tiles on the floor were a great help.
Andreas Kra
3mo
Here I experimented with some planned projections—some drawn freely, others using a ruler. While working on the drawing with the colored rectangular shape, I noticed something: the projected center and the identified X-center don’t align exactly.
I’m wondering—could this be due to inaccuracies in my construction, or did I make a fundamental mistake? Has anyone else experienced a similar issue? I tried to visualize the difference by creating a digital overlay drawing for comparison.
Stepka
2mo
The center of a projected rectangle always coincides with the intersection of its diagonals. It is small inaccuracies that accumulate. But your difference is minor and quite in the range experienced by all of us from time to time. Welcome to the tribe. 😉
Sandra Süsser
3mo
Lesson Notes. I understand this basic rotation, however I've got a question: What happens when the plan for the object is parallel docking onto the picture plane? (See little sloppy sketch on the lower left corner)
I know it should be central 1-point-perspective without the vanishing points at the side and I can usually draw that no problem. However, I just can't wrap my head around constructing that with THIS method and I would probably never use it for that. But I would really like to know how it's done properly. Like which lines connect to which? Is the viewer the central vanishing point at the same time?
Anthony Hernandez
3mo
This looks awesome, as well as the one you posted in the assignments! I think you have the idea for the 1 point perspective projection basically correct except that the vanishing point will still be on the horizon line directly in front of the viewer and not at the viewer itself. So it's the same steps, but the step where you find the vanishing points by drawing lines parallel to the sides of the box out from the viewer is in a special case. The Z lines just goes straight forward (intersecting the HL for the central vanishing point), and the X line is now parallel to the picture plane so it goes out forever and never intersects the HL. Not sure if that was clear, attached an image of the VP step and then the full projection.
Sita Rabeling
3mo
Earlier attempts to project an irregular figure failed, but I hope I 'got' it now... Phew!
I traced the drawing digitally to see it all the lines better.
Sita Rabeling
3mo
Btw got some tips for this from @maggieb, so that was very helpful!
Frank Engelhaupt
3mo
I have a question. When I look at a model at my life drawing class and that model ist standing right in front of me. In order to look at her legs, I would have to roll my eyes or tilt my head downwards. I always assumed, that in this case, the legs would appear foreshortened hence I look down on them. So I did a little diagram and a little measuring and it seems, that there is NO foreshortening going on in the vertical axes. Am I correct or is there an error in my reasoning? I guess it has also to do with proximity - if I would stay closer to the model there would be a distortion even on the y-axis. Or does the distortion only start to happen when the canvas and the y-axes are not parallel anymore? Thank you for clarification.
Anke Mols
3mo
Cool, works, what a joy.
Does the lowest point of the (here) rectangle need to touch the picture plane? I would say "no", but I am not sure.
@Michael Longhurst: you did the anvil, WOW !!!! Great work! Hopefully I will dare to do so within the next days.
Michael Longhurst
3mo
My assumption was that, yes, one corner of your object has to touch the picture plane. Since we’re using the actual height of the ortho in the final drawing for that corner, that would only match if it was up against the picture plane. Otherwise it would be diminished based on how far away it was.
Michael Longhurst
3mo
Fascinating process. I started with a 4 sided shape, but realized it didn’t work right because the sides weren’t parallel, ie wouldn’t go to the same vanishing points. Then I tried an airplane shape. That worked pretty well, but was really small. Also the back corner wasn’t quite lined up, I think due to line thickness and imperfect measurements. Next I moved on to anvils. I also started using multiple pages to attempt bigger drawings. My first one, I forgot to move the horizon line, so by default used the top of the page as the horizon line. I had a lot of distortion, I think due to being far enough below the horizon that the anvil was outside of the 60 degree cone of vision. On my 2nd anvil, I placed it on the horizon line. It came out pretty well. My biggest question is whether or not this is the right approach to scale up the final drawing. It seems to take a lot of paper space and gets a little difficult to work with, although maybe I’m just not used working bigger than sketchbook size.
Jay Nightshade
3mo
Another great video in this course. This clears up a lot of my questions about X,Y and Z.
@ryanlloyddesign
3mo
Very informative lesson!
It breaks down some of the stuff I've been reading in How to Draw by Scott Robertson.
Also the very beginning reminds me of some of the ideas behind 3D graphics coding I did years ago - namely using the idea of ratios of similar triangles from geometry to project 3d points onto a screen (in this case the picture plane). Same concept, just one is more visual, the other a mathematical representation.
It's pretty cool how all of this comes full circle.
Maria Bygrove
3mo
Here's my attempt at following along and trying to wrap my head around the ideas.
And a couple of questions:
Is the point that I marked with "?" called the Station Point?
Does the horizon line for the projection drawing have to cross it?
You Ji An
3mo
When I first tried it, it looked off even though it was within the 60 degrees FOV, but then I realised it's because of precision issues with my thick pencil and the way I used the ruler :D
Also, I guess the height method only works if the object is touching the picture plane.
Sita Rabeling
3mo
Hope I’m still following 🤓 despite having less time, focus at the moment.
@maggieb
3mo
Great job exploring shapes that are not simple rectangles! Angles other than 90 degrees and sides that are not parallel make these interesting examples.
I think you need to make a small adjustment in how you apply the technique in order for this to work. All lines that go to a common vanishing point are parallel. In Marshall's example, he used a rectangle which has two sets of parallel sides and thus he required two vanishing points.
In your first example, the top view shows that you don't have any parallel edges, all four edges extend at different angles to the picture plane. This means that the lines through the edges in your perspective projection must each go to a _different_ vanishing point. You can either use four different vanishing points (one for each edge angle, determined just as you did for the red and blue edges) or you can put your shape in a rectangle (or a parallelogram), use the edges of the rectangle to place two vanishing points and then determine the position of your shape inside the rectangle (e.g. by using a grid approach within the rectangle). The same is true for your pentagon shape. None of the edges are parallel so you either need five vanishing points or you need to place the pentagon in a rectangle.
Aside: The lines that go through a single vanishing point only intersect at that vanishing point. The vanishing point is on the horizon which is very, very far away and can be thought of as at infinity. Thus the lines never really intersect which means, by definition, they are parallel. Exceptions to this would be the horizon line and a vertical line through the VP, both of which would be in the zone of distortion so I think we can ignore them.
Smithies
3mo
I think I follow, but mostly maybe I don't!
The plan stage lost me - the video mentioned placing things at an angle and being a certain distance from the picture plane. How does this translate to drawing? Is the picture plane the easel? Is this only when you are drawing from life? Is the viewer the artist? I see the logic of distortion but also I'm so confused.
Lin
3mo
The picture plane is both the window through which you’re viewing the image, and the flat surface of the drawing where you’re producing what’s in that window. You decide how much you’re drawing. In rizz parlance, it’s like taking a screenshot in a video game. Screenshot is picture plane. It can be what your eyes see, or you can crop it so you only have a specific part of it you want to show. You decide how much goes on the canvas.
Every screenshot is taken from a specific position, and can only include so much in it, that’s your cone of vision. You can’t include 360* degrees, only how much your video game eyes can see. Technically we are both viewer and artist because we decide where the image is taken or seen from - top down, front, etc.
When it comes to distance, it’s the distance between you and the objects you’re drawing that changes how things look. The picture plane is just there to be aware of. Imagine you’re looking at a cat. We have a 60 degree cone of vision as humans so if we are too close to the cat all we will see is its snout and a bit of fur. it won’t be all in our sight. if we are really far away we will see the cat and all the surroundings in the picture plane. Same if we take a photo of it with our phone from up close vs from far away. For example, Boston is very close to the camera here so all we see in the picture plane is her head. That’s why Marshall says put the station point aka viewer a bit further away from the object to make sure the entire cat is in the cone of vision.
Smithies
3mo
Also I'm so sorry if I'm being dumb
Dedee Anderson Ganda
3mo
this is the hardest lesson to wrap around the brain so far, might need to rewatch this a couple of times more.
Also my results dont feel accurate. due to wobbly freehand lines.
Dedee Anderson Ganda
3mo
wait, is the bottom one incorrect because the object is placed behind the observer therefore that should not be happening?
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