Common Perspective Mistakes - Artist Drawing tips

Many of the students that picked up the Easy Art Lessons #6-10 tagged me in their homework assignment on Twitter. I wanted to do a paint over of a few mistakes that were made and how to correct them. This should also help out several beginners with improving their perspective guides.

Things I've worked on:
Overwatch (PC, PS4)
League of Legends (PC)
Diablo 3 (PC,PS4)
Hearthstone (Mobile, PC)
Burning Crusade (PC)
Wrath of the Lich King (PC)
Indivisible
Unsung Story
Final Fight Streetwise (PS2)
He Man (GBA)
Terminator 3 (GBA)
CannonBallers (Mobile)
CreeD
Twilight Monk
Ikeda
Nova Colony
Galaxy's Edge
SodaPopSoldier
Millenium Actress
Goblins and Gnomes

[SayceBuckleyFreak]

Seeing analysis on other student works taught me more than a lot of tutorials on perspective ! this was great !!

[jolson]

Thanks so much for the critique Trent! It's really flattering that you took the time to provide me with this feedback :). I knew some things were feeling off but couldn't quite put my finger on it, so this is so incredibly helpful! It makes me all the more excited to continue learning drawing. I've since backed up a bit and am going back to work on understanding perspective more (especially things like Cone of Vision and understanding things like center VP and diagonal center VP).

It's really fun how many things you can draw even when working on basic things like perspective and 3d forms! And inspiration is around us everywhere. I never thought this would be me, but I'm starting to do things like take pictures of water coolers, business signs, lamps, toy packaging, etc. Soooo many things to have fun trying to draw! :D.

Thanks again for your videos and your Gumroad content. It has been so inspirational and useful for me.

[MattGoesSplat]

Thanks for the feedback Trent, much appreciated! I’ll try out your critiques and let you know how they go. Keep it up man!

-RedBeard

[ernestodefelice]

Thank you for the critique! You really helped me understand the positioning of the elements. Thank you! :)

[BxBL]

Also keeping both points within the page will always result in "fisheye" effect :)
Most of the time that won't contribute to the "immersion" in the scene.

[billjensen]

This is one of the most informational perspective videos I've watched, really helpful to see you use real life examples. Thank you very much. Cheers from Wisconsin.

[katebyrne]

Hi Trent! Finding the exact centre of a wall (or plane in perspective) is quite easy. Draw a diagonal line on your wall from the top left to the bottom right and then a diagonal line from the top right to the bottom left. You should now have a wall with two diagonal lines that form a cross. The centre of that cross signifies where the centre of that wall is. If you draw a vertical line up from the centre of that cross you can easily find where the centre of your roof should be. Hope this helps.

[werewolf]

I'm pretty good at these from art and drafting but even I forget how to calculate distance between objects as they go toward vanish point (like rail road ties) and you should cover how to do an ellipse on these situations. I forget how to do that as well now. Where you like make a cross and aches

[xellffs]

I LOVE Red Beard's style. Reminds me of Dark Cloud 2, for ps1... maybe ps2... I think. Can't remember. But it gives me this nostalgic feeling. Aces.

[CatchBurning]

I agree with a lot of what you said,

but
In the first piece you say the doors should be the same type, and in most cases I would agree, except with what looks like a house that could’ve been in the background of Aladdin. The deferences gives the house character something rare for square box to possess, so yes the doors look a little too different from each other, (not that you said they should) but making them symbolic twins would just remove the building’s charm. But everything else I agree with.😊

On the second piece:
I think the thick lines around the second piece makes it very unique- if something should be fixed that isn’t one of them, but if the artist had used thicker lines towards the viewer and thinner lines towards the vanishing points it would have been nice too, -the YouTuber Draw with Jazza uses this technique and it works like a charm.

And the last one; I totally agree- but I do Love how organic the house looks, the forest is invading civilization and I wouldn’t do anything to stop it. 😁

Over all; awesome video, I like that you helped others finding ways to improve their art. You might’ve just gotten a new subscriber. 😉

[lostmarimo]

It boggles my mind that everything can be tracked back to 2 points like that

[FramingEden]

Amazing job to the artists! And amazing job from the teacher! You noticed things I would have otherwise missed, like using perspective on even the smallest of objects, the little details like that really pull a piece together, I can see that now, so thank you Artists and Thank You For Teaching

[DilshadNajeeb]

You could draw diagonals across the wall to find the centre

[PRGFantasyz]

I have NEVER gotten this before...I have taken college classes and tried my hardest, but I have hated it because no matter how much they explained it I couldn't take the theory and put it on paper...This whole thing has been a weird A-HA! moment for me. Thank you for doing these types of videos, Glad to be a new Subscriber! :)

[judeleese]

Thoroughly enjoyed watching this and despite seeing where some of the artists here may have gone a little astray, their work was still a joy to see. My own perspective skills will be thankful. Thanks. I am going to introduce this to my son.

[thatwaslithe]

but this helps me a lot, omg i've been struggling so much to understand 2 point pespective since it's commonly used in architecture (i already understand the 1st and 3rd)

[Dug]

A good run down on perspective.
In the learning process it is good to be disciplined over the technique, but it can start to make art work look like a technical drawing exercise if the drawer overthinks it all the time.

When it becomes a feel thing is when drawing can return to thinking creatively but still look right.
I like to draw a faint outline of a box that the subject could be contained within as a stating point to set the perspective, rather than nominating two points and have them dictate the look of the final result.
How curves and circles behave in perspective can be a challenge in itself.
I remember as a kid, Dad drawing an ocean liner from the perspective of down at water level looking up and I just understood straight off why the lines drawn that way looked right and described the angle of view I was looking from.
Some times you get lucky how your brain works.
I also like to play music, but that is a slog and requires the approach to learning you describe here.

[rosesnscissors]

Can I be honest Trent, your voice sounds a lot like Mordicai from Regular Show!!! That's lit!!

[TheArtMentor]

Strong critique 👍 as someone who teaches perspective, these simple and overlooked issues are extremely common

[ravecaster]

To find the center of a wall, draw an X between opposing corners.  This can
similarly be used to determine the distance between equally spaced objects
receding into the distance by using the center point of the surface to make
a vertical line and make another X to find the next center and so on,
dividing the surface into progressively smaller sections as it recedes.