TWO POINT PERSPECTIVE

In this tutorial, we'll be looking at two point perspective. Two point perspective is by far the best suited
perspective drawing styles available for rendering environment concept art. The reason for this is the fact that
realism and proportions can be achieved fairly quickly, and the focus remains on the composition, rather than
on the technical details.

Some points to consider when working with two point perspective:

- All vertical construction lines are parallel to one another.

- All vertical lines constructed at the intersection point of the two lines running towards the vanishing
points.
- All horizontal construction lines lead to a single vanishing point, based on the plane on which they are
located on.
- The two further away from each other you place your two vanishing points, the flatter your objects will
appear.
- This style of perspective requires choosing two vanishing points.
- One or both vanishing points can be placed outside of your canvas, as well as inside.

When to Use Two Point Perspective:

Whenever you need to quickly render a three dimensional object geometrically accurate, this is the perspective
style to go with. That doesn't mean that the three point perspective wouldn't be equally, if not better suited, but
for obvious reasons, the current style is far easier to implement. As opposed to one point perspective and two
point perspective, with the two vanishing points, offers you the ability to focus more on your actual subject,
than on the potential negative effects of choosing an inappropriate single vanishing point and perspective
direction.

I recommend using this style of perspective for the following scenarios:

- Architectural exterior scenes
- Complex Object concepts
- Concept art of any kind, particularly larger scenes

Choosing Your Vanishing Points

Keep in mind that the position of your vanishing points is very important. All your lines extend to their
respective vanishing point, and as a result, this choice will affect the degree of deformation your object/scene
will display. The vanishing point placement however, is far less strict than in the case of the one point
perspective.

*NOTE: You can opt to place these vanishing points at equal distance from your canvas center, on or outside of your
canvas limits for example. Please note that the closer one of the vanishing points will be to the center of your canvas, the
more biased the image will seem. What this means is that the side of your object affected by this vanishing point will seem
squeezed".

You can see what I'm referring to in the

image to the left, showing you how I've used
this technique for the first image in this
lesson.
Exercise

To ensure that you have a firm grasp of the basic concepts presented here, let's take a look at this
quick exercise. Let's try to create a house! Feel free to vary from the example presented here, as this
was kept simple for specific reasons:

- Start off by choosing two vanishing points, preferably located outside of your canvas.
- Draw your base volume. Your proportions should feel right when drawing the first vertical line,
in context with the horizon.
- Start defining the base of your building, as usual, making use of as many construction lines as
needed. Add a few windows, a door, and the foundation.
- Refine your volume, maintain your focus on proportions rather than finer details, add thickness
and depth.
- Start adding details, extrusions and surrounding objects. Again, when drawing surroundings,
create construction lines at the base of objects and extend them to your construction's base, to
maintain correct proportions.

1. Create the Base Construction Lines

Step 1
Choose your Vanishing Points. I've decided to
place one of them right on the left margin of our
canvas, and the other a bit further outside. The
Horizon Line was placed at 2/5 of the canvas
height as the object will be located fairly close to
our viewing position, and this height represents the
normal viewing angle for an average person
(approx. 1.80m height).

Step 2
Define your perspective, or better said, what your
position as the viewer will be. In this step, it's
important to get the base of your volume defined,
and see how it will lay on the ground.
 Step 3
Now that the placement has
been clarified, let's start
extruding the volume upwards
to identify exactly how tall the
building will appear to the
viewer.

Step 4
Separate your lateral and front
sides of the volume by using
two different shades and
layers. This will help you
further down the line when
trying to further refine your
details.

2. Find Your Roof Line

Now that we've decided upon the final dimensions of our volume, it's time to go deeper into refining
the proportions. We need to think about what other major elements need to be built into this
perspective:
- The roof
- The pillars
- The porch
- The chimney
- The fence

Step 1
Identify the exact center of your
lateral wall by drawing out the
diagonal lines, and extending a
vertical construction line. The
height at which you decide to
extend this will represent the
highest point of your roof. Be sure
to repeat this procedure on both
sides of your volume to obtain the
correct slope in the next step.

Step 2
To define the lateral margins and
slope of your roof, you simply
need to extend a line from the
highest point towards the ground,
and pass through a corner of
your initial volume, in the
direction you're extending to.
 Step 3
Having done that for all four
corner points, I strongly suggest
that you now separate the
surfaces both visually, with
different shades, as well as on
their own layers, for easier later
edits (if you'd want to add roof
shingles later, this would make
perfect sense).

3. Refine Your Base Volume

Step 1
Add Your Porch
To create the porch, we
will simply extend the
base of our building by
about two meters towards
the viewer, and around 40
centimeters in height. Of
course, as we're not
actually measuring in our
case, I'm just providing
you with some dimensions
worth keeping in mind, so
that you can identify
correct proportions.
 Step 2
Add Your Pillars
Firstly, we want the pillars
to be located exactly at
the corners of our building,
but we also want them to
be visible, so we're going
to have the walls pushed
in slightly.

The easiest method would be that of identifying the base of each pillar and extruding it upwards. Aim
to repeat the same process used when defining the base shape in the second step of the exercise,
only this time, within the initial boundaries of your volume. Here is a closer look at this:
Step 3: Place Your Windows and Door
In this step, it's important to keep in mind the fact that due to the porch, your position as a viewer is
slightly lower, and this in turn will mean that your door will seem taller. Further extend the highest line
of your door to line up your windows.

4. Add Shading and Additional Sub-Objects

Step 1: Separate the Pillars from
the Walls
As the number of construction
lines is constantly growing, I
suggest you take the time ever
so often to shade the faces that
you defined, and to separate
them on dedicated layers as
often as possible. You do not
have to spend a lot of time on
this step, but the more time you
invest now, the more precise
your selections will be further on,
when you'll want to start adding
details.
 Step 2: Add Thickness to the
Front Wall
Similarly to how you managed
to push the walls towards the
inside of your volume, you will
now have to define the
thickness of the front wall. Draw
a secondary lane on your floor,
extending it to the right
vanishing point. Project your
windows on the ground, then
connect them with your left
vanishing point. The resulting
intersections will have to be
extruded upwards.

Here's a better look at it:

 Step 3: Unify the Shading
Now that the construction lines have been
drawn, once more, clean up the image and
make sure to use the same shades,
depending on the orientation of the resulting
faces.

Step 4: Build the Porch Steps

As the porch is a bit higher than the
average "comfortable" height, we will
have to create a step to ease the
ascent onto it.

The key is drawing as many

construction lines as needed, and
always projecting relevant points on
already existent faces.

Step 5: Shade the Porch Steps

Add the same lighter shading on the top faces,
the darkest shade to the faces that are not in
direct light (our light source is to the right).
Step 6: Add a Chimney
In order to be able to do
this, you will first have to
decide upon a good
position for the chimney.
Start off by picking two
points on the highest rim
of your roof. Project these
on the front face, then
connect the resulting
points to your left
vanishing point.

Finally, draw two

construction lines
connected to your right
vanishing point, across
the front face of the roof.
Aim for a relatively square
shape. Now all that is left
to do is to extrude the
volume upwards.

Step 7: Shade the

Chimney
As you can see in this
step, a mistake made
earlier becomes quite
visible! The front-left pillar
is shaded incorrectly,
same as the lateral wall...
but then again, this is
easily fixed if you took the
time to separate the faces
onto dedicated layers, as
suggested previously.
5. Refine the Surroundings

Step 1: Build a
Surrounding Wall
Given the rather steep
perspective, a great
part of your fence may
fall outside of the
canvas area. Don't
worry about it, but do
not skip the
construction process,
because the human
eye is very receptive to
perspective errors, and
what might save you a
couple of minutes,
would have a negative
effect on your final
image.

Start off by drawing a

rectangle, similar, but
larger than your initial
base. Double this
rectangle and enlarge it slightly, to create the thickness of your fence/wall. Raise the resulting volume
by extruding upwards. Now all you have to do is decide where you'd like to have the opening!

Step 2: Shade the

Surrounding Wall
This step can always be
replaced by adding more
detail. You could use the
resulting volume as a
bounding-box for a more
complex fence for example.
In our case, I've opted to
simply shade it, this time
using a lighter shade
palette.
6. Add a Hint of Contrast
Separate the Sky
from the Ground
Use your Horizon
Line to separate
the two sections.
To enhance the
depth perception, I
recommend using
a gradient for the
sky, and maybe
something more
solid, but much
darker for the
ground.

This step of course

is entirely up to
you, and in a real
usage scenario,
requires a bit more
work.

Your House is Complete!

Please keep in mind that drawing in perspective takes far less time if you're doing it on paper,
rather than digitally. The scope of this tutorial is that of explaining the work flow, and helping you learn
by doing. That being said however, I recommend that in actual usage scenarios you just keep these
techniques in mind, and rely on them just to build so called "bounding boxes" (less detailed
containment volumes) to which you add details as it comes naturally.
With enough practice, you will only need a minimal amount of construction lines, and still be
able to achieve convincing perspectives. Good luck, and most importantly, have fun!

Assignment:
Students will create a two point perspective of exterior view of a building of their choice. Students should use
this handout as a guide in creating a successful two point perspective of a space.

Students must have the following present in their drawing:

- Horizon line
- Vanishing points
- Converging lines (diagonal lines that connect to the vanishing point.)

Mini project will be graded on the following scale (daily grade):

100% -max effort, detail, and craftsmanship.

70% -minimal effort
0% -work not completed