Tips for drawing a perspective from a photograph

Perspective drawing tips

When making a photo-based drawing, you should be familiar with tips for changes in perspective that are not so obvious.

Tips for drawing perspective by Alexander Cherkov, from the book "Introduction to the World of Art"Sculpture, painting, drawing and more"

In the practical drawing, it should be remembered that the rules of perspective necessary to create the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface are not completely perceived by our brain. That is, the photographs do not necessarily reflect the The rules of perspective In the registry.

Perspective drawing tips
Perspective from a photograph Figure 1

That is, we do not see the street in Figure 1 in reality as it is shown in the picture.

In reality, we see a street with houses like in Figure 2 if the perspective does not distract our attention in depth, or like in Figure 3, where the height perspective has been corrected by graphic editing. 

Perspective drawing tips
Perspective from a photograph Figure 2
Perspective drawing tips
Perspective from a photograph Figure 3

But the photograph will be exactly the same as in Figure 1 and it conforms to the rules of perspective, which our brain partially ignores. 

The same can be said about the rules of aerial perspective. In reality, the effect of lightening and fading of the colors of the landscape moving away from us and approaching the horizon line to the horizon is not as noticeable as in Figure 4.

Perspective drawing tips
Perspective from a photograph Figure 4

Tips for Drawing Perspective on the Human Body

When making drawings from looking at photographs, the rules of perspective also work poorly in relation to objects and especially to the human body (Figs. 6, 5). 

Perspective from a photograph Figure 5
Perspective from a photograph Figure 5
Perspective from a photograph Figure 6
Perspective from a photograph Figure 6

In frontal images of the human body, when depicting a person in a linear perspective, it is sufficient to apply the rules for constructing a perspective with one vanishing point and sometimes, a perspective with two vanishing points used for building depth.

Perspective drawing tips
The human body in a linear perspective

The situation is worse when applying perspective rules with three vanishing points used to express depth and height. Here you need to be very careful and sometimes significantly reduce the impact of changes in the proportions of the human body when building a height perspective.

 Otherwise, the gymnast's right leg will look shorter than her left leg. The athlete may look too short because of the reduced perspective at height. 

However, when the angle allows you to achieve the desired effect, the use of rules for building perspective with a point of view at a height is very appropriate. 

It is recommended to perform exercises to apply the understanding of tips for drawing perspective from a photograph.

In any case, the decision regarding the accuracy of following the rules in art rests with the artist. In art, the honesty of perception is more important than the accuracy of the image, since the artist's honesty is the key to the credibility of a work of art. And it will not be replaced either by following the rules, or by perfect technique to the point of virtuosity.

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