Tips on Drawing Rooms in Perspective

[J.Z.Castillo]

Does anyone got awesome secrets tips and tricks to share? I am approaching a home interior section of my comic and I am DREADING having to deal with perspective. THIS IS WHY WE HAVE BACKGROUND ARTISTS! Ugh.

Anyway! What do you have up your sleeve to make these things less annoying?

[TomorrowShines]

Sketchup.

There's also other interior design programs/websites that can probably do what you want even faster.

That said, you should still study perspective or else those snazzy backgrounds won't match up with your characters.

And don't dread background work... with the right tools, it's a relaxing break from faces faces faces.

[J.Z.Castillo]

sharing a program and telling someone to study is not... a tip or trick... just... idk what I expected from this forum...

To those wondering, those programs will NOT work correctly unless you already have a grasp on perspective, it's like telling someone to go bake a cake without giving them the recipe and only showing them a picture of the final result. I don't recommend them, it's better to have everything mapped out by hand and THEN put it into the program, if at all!

This process is long and tedious, hence my question... What tips and tricks have you learned to make drawing rooms and buildings in perspective less tedious and much faster?

[Jenny-Toons]

In my case, Perspective is mostly about dealing with depth and showing the background, middleground, and foreground in the works, as shown before.

I use Paint-SAI for my comics, which has the modes such as "Normal", "Multiply", "Shade", "Overlay", and "Luminosity". This helps change the setting of a color against other others. There's also an opacity tool right under (it's being blocked by the drop down tool). With this, I can change how dark or light the shadow is once I've got the right look.

Combine with these, I use shadows to demonstrate depth and separation between the layers in a setting. I make these shadows, using the blur tool or the special pens I've made.

I also recommend having a strong set of colors that you'd use as your overall shadow method. For me, I use a different array of purples and blues, with some gray:

The result of doing so leads to this:

Now, I've circled the parts that lead to more depth. This is where I use both those modes and the blur tool. For this particular one, I used the mode "Multiply" with a light purple. Then, I used the opacity tool to find the right brightness. Once I did that, I blurred the shadow to create the idea that there was more hidden behind.

Another thing do is use the Select tool. In Paint-Sai, there are four types of ways to use it: "Rotate", "Transform", "Scale", and "Free Deform"

"Free Deform" will be your best friend. This is where you can get different types of perspectives. The key is to draw the object one-dimensionally and then change the perspective. Then, you can add 3D-effects. Here's a quick example:

I drew a simple little window. But, using the free deform tool, I changed its perspective. Then, I added more 3D effects to make it pop out. I've also used it, combined with my color tip, below:

And I keep doing those tricks to produce things such as this:

I will say that knowing a bit of perspective lessons can definitely help you. Having the tricks and tips is cool, but knowing how to apply them makes them that much easier!

[TomorrowShines]

I apologize for my substandard post and I will reevaluate the utility of my further involvement in these forums.

[TheFalseVyper]

The best advice I can give as far as coloring perspective is to make the stuff in the foreground the darkest color, and the further out an object is will make it lighter in appearance.

Another option is to just eyeball it without the use of vanishing points. Many artists utilize this option and their works still come out beautifully. I actually feel that if you use perspective for EVERY object within a room the picture will look fake

The picture below is an example of using perspective lines for the bigger furniture like the counter and table, but I just eyeballed the dishes in the bottom and the barrels in the back:

Same thing for this picture:

Though on this one I could have made the part of the house that's further away a lighter color.

I hope this helps!

[Luminosophy]

The second part of this tips page has a section on interiors:

How to Draw Detailed Buildings

(This guy's work is seriously amazing!)

Secondly I found this website:

https://drawabox.com/

I know it's for pure beginners but the idea of drawing tons of boxes at different angles I could see lending itself very well to interior perspective. Given from what I've found so far interiors at the end of the day are just rectangles and boxes stacked upon each other. No matter what object I'm drawing, I just make it a cube/ rectangular prism at the height and width I want to ensure it's sitting on the correct plane and then add details on top of it.

[shazzbaa]

This isn't specific to the inside of a home, but a friend of mine compiled all my Cheater Tips As A Person Who Hates Rulers But Loves Backgrounds here!!

Is there anything in specific that's giving you trouble when you try to draw interior environments in perspective?

[Jenny-Toons]

That was like finding a vault of FBI-trade secrets. Thank you, darling!

[J.Z.Castillo]

@spudfuzz @shazzbaa literally SCREAMING at these!! Thank you!!

I'm not having any particular problems I just wanted to find ways to make things go faster since I can spend HOURS on a grid and then see something be off and just have to scrap the whole thing. If I can expedite my process I won't feel as defeated when things like that happen

[Nitelini]

well dunno If could be of any help but a thing I usually do that helps a fuckaton with perspective is sketching out a cenital view of the room, like a plane so I can make my mind on what should I take in consideration at the moment of drawing, you know it helps in the process of selecting the shots you'll use in the panels. Also, avoid spending time on details must go from general to specific, finally markcrilley videos on perspective might help you if you're really struggling with perspective, have a nice day sir.

[Saajing]

Perspective! for Comic Book Artists: How to Achieve a Professional Look in your Artwork: David Chelsea: 8601200389227: Amazon.com: Books

Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers: Marcos Mateu-Mestre, Jeffrey Katzenberg: 8601404694523: Amazon.com: Books

These books are pretty good, though framed ink deals more with atmosphere than perspective (which is equally important). If you've read understanding comics (which you should if you haven't), then David Chelsea's book will be a fast read and easy to comprehend.

It's also a good idea to practice perspective on grid paper; learning how to work and see things on a grid makes freeform perspective easier because you get a sense where things should be in the given space without always having to make a grid yourself. Basic shapes are always helpful — draw a bunch of boxes in one, two, and three-point perspective to get a sense of the space (don't worry too much about fancy curves, they come later).

However, assuming you know the basics (horizon line, vanishing points, blah blah blah...), these are some facts that you should keep in mind, especially when rough drafting (I guess you can call them tips???):

UNIVERSAL PERSPECTIVE
* Anything below the horizon line, you're looking at the top of it.
* Anything above the horizon line, you're looking at the bottom of it.

TWO & THREE-POINT PERSPECTIVE
* To avoid distortion, keep one vanishing point in-frame, and the other out

• (for 3-point, specifically keep it FAR out of frame)

• You can always keep all points out of frame, though. It's up to the look you're going for.

PEOPLE IN PERSPECTIVE
A person, or object drawn on a flat plane will always be crossed by the horizon line through the same spot on its body, regardless of foreground, middleground, or background.

^ this is the only example I had to show. Every character's head (for the most part, it's just a sketch) is on the same horizon line, I just made them bigger depending on where I want them the be standing on the given space.

The thing about tips and tricks is they only really work well when you have a firm grasp of the subject; they're only as good as your prior knowledge. I wouldn't recommend these to be considered shortcuts to learning perspective, but I do hope this helps in some way to give you (and others) a better understanding of building depth.

Also, those books are really good to have.

[beta1042]

Already a lot of great tips... for me when in doubt I get a reference photo! Sometimes I straight up trace certain parts to get it right.

I had to draw a bunch of pictures of costco for my comic(Kostco date lol), I went there and took a bunch of photos and then used them as a base for drawing the backgrounds, I never could have drawn them with out all those references... although it was awkward trying to discreetly take pictures while shopping (good thing I have a cute kid I just pretended to photograph XD)

[indigodrawing]

Do you draw by hand on paper or do you use drawing software? If you use drawing software then most of the better packages like Clip and Photoshop should have perspective tools built in that you can use to help you.

In either case you need to learn about vanishing points and 2 and 3 point perspective, which are tools that all artists have used since the concept of perspective was created.

There is also 1 point perspective, but this is rarely of much practical use when drawing a realistic environment. It is, however, very easy to get to grips with and if you've had no exposure to drawing perspective at all then it's as good a place as any to start.

The above is only 1-point, but it does cover the al-important vanishing point, which is the basis for all perspective drawing. 2 and 3 point perspective use 2 and 3 vanishing points, respectively.

covers all three types of perspective very briefly

More perspective info, this one is a bit longer, but more comprehensive and also provides some files to help you practice.

Tutorial on the perspective helpers in a specific piece of software (Clip, in this case)

Regardless of whether you use physical or digital media the basic principles remain the same.

One important thing you need to bear in mind is that the vanishing points don't actually have to be within the confines of your page, though they do need to be consistent. This is useful to know if you find your perspective looks over-exaggerated. The further away the vanishing points are the less extreme the effect is.

[mintycanoodles]

no really, sketchup. don't be so dismissive it's a hugely useful tool. I use it all the time to design sets, and not only does it help double check perspective, it's great for keeping track of the orientation of complicated places. You know, so you're not drawing a door on the wrong wall, spontaneously moving furniture around. it also helps me figure out exactly what kind of angle I want the panel to be drawn in, i can see a bunch of different ones with a screencap instead of drawing it over and over and over again.

it is...actually exactly like giving you the recipe and picture of the final product. you can draw things in the perspective you think is right, then compare it to what a 3d model shows what the correct perspective actually is. and I use it all the time to map everything out first? like I don't know exactly what i want the inside of a room to look like off the top of my head staring at a blank canvas half the time. modeling in 3d beforehand lets me like, interior decorate as I go. oh, I don't like the shape of that couch? let's see another one. maybe the window's not the right size and shape. instead of redrawing the whole thing lemme just...move it around in a 3d model.

so, tip: use resources like sketchup. resources are your friend.

[DiscsNBeats]

lmao not to be rude but if you want to be faster you can always use tools like sketchup or just draw more backgrounds so you get better at it, there are no "easy" ways in doing things right, I'm afraid.

[Hexigate]

The link to Sketchup may not be useful to OP, but this is the first time I've heard of this program and I am smiling in anticipation of what I could do with it. (Not with art, just with 3D modelling.) Thanks a ton for sharing it!

[alliascompany]

I struggle with perspective too so like a lot of people I also use Sketch-up. However if you want something a little simpler, you can try 5d planner. For an interior shots, I make a floor plan in 2D in Planner. After that, I switch it to 3D mode for reference.
If I'm designing a whole building, I'll make a floor plan in 5D planner. Then using the dimensions, I recreate it in Sketchup and build it up from there.

[ilustrariane]

buy the plugin "lazy nezumi", it makes the grid for you, the way you choose, and you just have fun actually drawing the scenarios

[MK_Wizard]

The best tip I can give is to use real life as a guide. Look at a room while keeping in mind of how it looks from your perspective and then practice drawing that. Once you get the hang of it, you can experiment with other scenes and such.