The SECRETS of DRAWING, Perspective Part 3

All you’ll ever need to know about perspective! LEVEL 2

Feb 23, 2025

Ha, Welcome back to ‘All you’ll ever need to Know about Perspective’. I’m saying welcome back because it is imperative that you’ve mastered Level 0 and Level 1 already, I’ll be referencing them here.

So far, we’ve been using a single main VP. In level 2 we’ll use more.

Simple Version Level 2:

2 vanishing VP at 90⁰

Maybe Because we humans just love neat 90⁰ angled stuff, like city and table, most of what you need to draw would require 2 VPs, one for each, say, East/West and North/South orientation.

Full Version Level 2:

Infinite VP

That was somehow reductive, But this is a Masterclass and you deserve better, so buckle up. The Horizon contains an infinite amount of vanishing points, extending in both directions, infinitely!

And you can use as many as you want simultaneously! Creating each time a new destination for parallel lines to race to.

You can now draw any set of parallel lines, in any arbitrary direction just by finding at which point they cross the horizon, generate a new VP, and boom.

Here’s all that in action.

I figured out this Gotham street corner using 3 Pair of VPs. In this example, The horizon is sitting above the panel, out of sight, parallel to those Green "infinite VP" lines.

Just keep track of which VP each sets of parallel lines are aiming at.

Beware!!

With level 2, our neat mathematical perspective theory can now produce a space that is just beyond the human limited perception of space and could end up looking pretty crooked! It's a trap! And I even saw fellow professionals fall into it. Bear with me.

It has to do with the human eyes and how much field of View we are used to stomach at once.

To outrageously simplify things and keep it in the practical realm of drawing stuff and NOT do a PHD in optics. Here's a bold statement: The distance between two VP (when they describe a 90 angle) defines your Field of view. Let me show you.

Sure, you could drop your vanishing points anywhere you want on the horizon, but here are a few old timer tricks and consideration before you do.

A) Just try to balance the distance between your two 90 VP so that the space inside your panel feel comfortable

B) Usually, if one of them lands close to your panel, that means to other need to be far.

C) Ultimately, if a VP falls inside to panel, the other is probably close to infinitely far, Maybe even a Level 1 perspective.

D) Both VPs should not be inside the panel at once, unless you are going for some intentional extreme effect.

That said, Rules are made to be bent, but only if you understand them. For example check out how Tim Sale opens the space and make Kansas feel spacious and wide by bringing the red VP closer. Amazing subtle wide angle.

Superman For All Seasons, #1, art Tim Sale.

Anyway, More about those traps later when we’ll dare talk about the terrible triangle of Death in level 3, and if we survive it, in Level 4 where we’ll finally leave our frail humanity behind and transcend into abstraction.

Little Trick

I have the feeling that new comers fall into these traps mostly because they are hesitant to use a VP that their physical ruler can't reach or just running out of place on their table.

Fear not, Yanick has answers for all your troubles, Check this out:

Hey, you made it out of level 2, Yay! . Congrats. I know things already seems a bit cray-cray with two levels to go, but level 3 is more straightforward (probably, no guarantee). See you all in Part 4.

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