Someone asked me to put this down in writing for them, so here it is. It’s the perspective trick that Brian Stelfreeze taught me back when I was 15 and organizing the Gaijin Studios library in exchange for drawing lessons. I could go on and on about how amazing the Gaijin crew are and what a tremendous summer it was, but I think I kind of do that regularly here.
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So let’s say you want to draw a house, and you want it to be realistic, so you find a real house to draw.
Need a house to draw in perspective? Here's one.
And when you draw it you don’t want it to look like this:
Not like this!
…because houses DO NOT LOOK LIKE THAT.
The essential flaw with the perspective system that everyone knows is that it is limited by the medium. It forces the object you are drawing to be highly distorted. While this can be okay sometimes, there are other times when you want to keep things as realistic as possible. If you want a large object to really fill up the page then you’re going to need to change the way you are working.
We should define the problem before we move on.
The perspective system we have all been taught relies on fixed vanishing points. We all know how this works. It is a simple system. Things disappear into the distance. Very basic.
The problem occurs when one wishes to depict an object that is NOT disappearing rapidly into the distance. Perhaps, like this house, it is pretty much right in front of you. It still has perspective, of course, but the angles are not severe. By simply putting the vanishing point on the page, you’ve already made a mistake.
Take another look
This is the entire page. The vanishing points are on the very edge of the paper, and yet they are still much too close to allow the house to appear naturalistic. The artist wants to be accurate with the lines according to the rules of perspective, but this results in a drawing that, while technically correct, just does not look REAL.
The solution? Move the vanishing points farther apart. Off the edge of the paper.
This is what we are trying to do
It gets to be kinda crazy, because all you are attempting to do, as the artist, is draw something that looks realistic, natural, and yet still accurate.
When I was young I would do this by taping another piece of paper to the end of the paper I was drawing on. Then I would place the distant vanishing point on the far edge of the extra page. Sometimes I found myself adding two or three pieces.
Adding pages to extend the vanishing point?
I ended up quickly running out of paper or, just as often, running out of flat space on which to draw. Sometimes I wanted to draw something large enough to fill the entire page, oh, 11” x 17” or so. For that to happen the vanishing point had to be so far away that the dining room table wasn’t long enough. I could move to the hallway floor, or possibly use a long wall (not that I ever would have). Even that would have been a temporary solution. At some point every artist will draw or paint something that is large and need to use lines of perspective. Wasting paper and ruining walls is not the answer.
This is a ridiculous problem. There is a simple, straightforward solution. The artist can simulate a distant vanishing point.
By creating a tapered grid the artist can project a “phantom” vanishing point as far off the page as is needed. This can be done with a pencil & ruler, or, if you’re smart, a TYPE GAUGE. A what, you ask? Sorry, but if you’re younger than 35 you’ve probably never used one. You see, before computers… ah, skip it. A type gauge is a fancy ruler that is really about 20 rulers all mashed together.
Haberule Type Gauge
Pretty cool, huh? You can see how the different rules measure different sizes, which correspond to point sizes in type. 6 point, 7 point, up to 15 point. Really, a basic ruler could work, but what you really want is a type gauge. It gives you options that are proportional to one another, which is key to making the grid work.
Every grid has two directions. We start by setting up the first direction with the type gauge.
Draw two parallel lines on opposite sides of the paper. Make these lines perpendicular to the horizon. (later on you can break away from the horizon, but we’re starting small)
Now we measure out a different scale on each of the lines. The illustration below will show you what I mean. The point where these lines cross the horizon is always mark zero. Start measuring from that mark, making new marks as you measure, and the lines will be in sync.
10 point & 15 point next to each other. One is bigger.
For this example I’ve chosen a 10 point gauge for one line and a 15 point gauge for the other. I’ve also placed the lines right next to each other so you can see how the different measurements relate (but your lines should still be on opposite sides of the paper). It will probably help if you number the marks while you’re learning.
Now we just connect the dots. Draw a line between the corresponding marks. Mark 1 on the left connects to mark 1 on the right. Mark 2 on the left connects to mark 2 on the right, and so on. Connect them all! Yay! When you finish, it should look something like this:
Try to avoid running into your fingers on the ruler, but you get the idea
With these lines are in proportion to each other you are ready to use them as your perspective reference. With a similar grid I recreated the original drawing of the house we began with. The results are pretty dramatic.
A more naturalistic perspective drawing
Not convinced? Check out these overlays of the two drawings on top of the photograph. They both have their problems, but the newer one is vastly superior, if what you are after is something that appears natural.
You be the judge
You can still buy type gauges in the really good art supply stores. Try Pearl Art or Plaza or whoever you have that’s better than an arts & craft shop. They cost about as much as an expensive ruler.
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Longest. Post. Ever.
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