How to practice perspective drawing! Easy exercise for beginners.
I never really had to practice perspective drawing as much. I could say I had an eye for it and intuitively I could get pretty far with just sort of faking it. But that can only take you so far.
When you want to paint backgrounds and be comfortable with them, perspective is something you can’t avoid. Unless you want to become a slave to 3D and trace your scenes from them (I’m guilty of this).
I already posted a TikTok about how to practice perspective drawing and you can watch it here. But I want to elaborate a little bit more about it because a 1-minute video isn’t long enough.
I will take you through the perspective drawing exercise that will help you understand space and objects within it quickly.
Step 1. Pick a photo & analyse it.
Picking the right reference is an art form in itself. The best pictures for practising perspective would be the ones where the lines of the ceiling and the floor are visible. Now, why? Because these are the structure lines that, if noted right, will lead you to your vanishing points. Why would potentially a bed or a chair not be the best option for finding the perspective lines? Because these objects can be rotated within the space, they can be uneven or tiled. If you follow an uneven edge it won’t lead you towards the correct vanishing point.
While doing this exercise you need to look for clear photos. Don’t over-complicate it.
For example. This photo is nice. You could definitely find two vanishing points and mark them correctly. However, if you are not experienced with perspective drawings, this photo has a lot of traps you could fall into.
Let’s take a look at the traps before I show you the correct way.
First of all, the ceiling is diagonal. This automatically eliminated the number of lines we can use to track down the perspective lines.
The bed has a lot of stuff on it, which makes it difficult to see the edge, thus finding the line.
The rug covers up the floor. It has an edge that could identify our vanishing point, however, we can’t be sure if the rug is actually perfectly rectangular.
So if I was to paint in the perspective using these guides, it would look a little bit like this.
As you can see, everything fell apart. Let’s discuss why.
The first mistake is, as I mentioned before, using the bed and a rug as a guide for the blue and pink lines. The bed especially has very unclear edges, which makes it difficult to correctly place a perspective line. That’s why, in most cases, it’s pointless to do it.
Another reason why the lines ended up being misplaced is that I used lines that are too thick. In this exercise, you need to be precise with where you place your lines. Lines that are too thick will naturally cover the edges that you are trying to follow, which can result in being less accurate.
Now take a look at this photo.
Because I’ve done this enough times and I know where the traps are I was able to track the perspective lines correctly. Notice how I’m using thinner lines that allow me to have more precision.
I only use the edges of the room’s construction. These can be the panels on the floor, the window frame, the railing outside or the wooden beams on the ceiling. They are usually the safest bet.
In conclusion, a photo like this still can be analysed but it’s more difficult than a photo with clearly defined floor and ceiling lines. Especially if you are just starting out, avoid complex references. Start simple and as you will get better you can move on to the less obvious examples!
Here are examples of easy photos.
( extra tip: Look for ‘minimalistic room’ on Pinterest!)
Step 2. Add more lines to your photo!
Because I’m trying to convince you to use simple photos, I redid the analysis and so here it is.
The next step is to add more lines to the vanishing points so that we can draw in some additional objects.
Remember that the lines need to be straight. Wonky lines won’t work!
Step 3. Draw in the objects.
This part is completely up to you and will depend on what kind of photo you chose for yourself. My suggestion is, again, to keep it simple. You can draw in just boxes at first and just see if they feel like they actually belong to the space.
Don’t start with complicated objects that have lots of curves or diagonal lines, because they might confuse you. The objects I’d start with would be a drawer, a bookshelf, a table, a bed frame, picture frames or posters on the wall, a rug. Anything that has a simple form.
And once you have your guidelines, you can clean it up a bit and have fun with adding details!
When you will get comfortable drawing these objects, you can switch them to some complex ones, like round sofas or office chairs.
The point here is to not overwhelm yourself with this exercise. Going from simple to complex is the way to slowly ease yourself into the idea of perspective drawing.
The whole reason why we are also using reference photos is that it’s a beginner-friendly exercise. By having that references you don’t need to worry about constructing the room from scratch and, thanks to that, you are eliminating the possibility of learning it wrong.
Ending notes.
I really hope this exercise will help you quickly understand the perspective drawing in action! I remember when I started out I understood the theory but I couldn’t quite put it into practice. I found the proportions and vanishing points confusing. By analysing the photos like this and testing myself by drawing in the objects I was quickly able to understand the logistic of it.
If you try it, let me know your thoughts! And if it’s not working out for you, also let me know, so maybe I could address it and help you out!
Happy painting! x
Tori