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In the last page, I explained that 1, 2, and 3 point perspective are simplifications that can when used without proper understanding, have a negative impact on how a student understands the manner in which perspective can be used as a tool. That does not however mean that it is without its uses. Below, I will explain situations where one can simplify the approach to constructing a box, based on how it's oriented in space.
Just keep in mind - these are loose guidelines, and depend very much on the circumstances of what you're drawing. Additionally, they only really apply to single boxes. That may not seem particularly useful, but you'll be surprised just how often you end up drawing boxes - not as the final goal, but as a tool to help define a chunk of space in which to construct a given object.
Each of the cases below involve drawing a singular box. The simplified guidelines will help you decide whether this box should be drawn in:
1 point perspective (meaning, if the box's orientation is close enough to perpendicular to the viewer on two axes, allowing for 2 vanishing points at infinity)
2 point perspective (meaning, if the box's orientation is close enough to perpendicular to the viewer on one axis, allowing for 1 vanishing point at infinity)
or 3 point perspective (meaning, the box's orientation would not allow for any of the vanishing points to be at infinity)
In doing so, each one will have you consider the general silhouette of the box you wish to draw - that is, the 2D shape it will result in when drawn on the page.
These guidelines are suggestions for you to use outside of this course. Do not employ them for any of the exercises you're doing here - especially not ones like the box challenge and cylinder challenge, which have us drawing forms that are randomly rotated in space.
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Consider the box you wish to draw, and the general silhouette its orientation will result in when drawn on the page. If the center of this silhouette is roughly over one of the box's faces (and is not too close to an edge or corner), then you can likely get away with drawing this box in 1 point perspective. This means that one vanishing point will be inside of or very close to the box's silhouette, but the other two can be placed at infinity, allowing you to draw those edges as parallel on the page.
The closer the silhouette's center drifts to an edge or corner, the more "off" this will end up appearing, so do not try to force it.
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If the general silhouette of your box once drawn is centered close to an edge, you can get away with drawing it in 2 point perspective - meaning, with two sets of parallel edges drawn as lines that converge towards concrete vanishing points, and one set of parallel edges whose vanishing point is at infinity, allowing them to be drawn as parallel on the page.
The closer the silhouette's center drifts to a corner, the more it'll start to look distorted.
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And lastly, if you find that the box's silhouette is centered close to one of the box's corners, then there's not much that can be done. Attempting to force any of the vanishing points to infinity will result in a ton of distortion, so that should absolutely be avoided in these situations.
I'd been drawing as a hobby for a solid 10 years at least before I finally had the concept of composition explained to me by a friend.
Unlike the spatial reasoning we delve into here, where it's all about understanding the relationships between things in three dimensions, composition is all about understanding what you're drawing as it exists in two dimensions. It's about the silhouettes that are used to represent objects, without concern for what those objects are. It's all just shapes, how those shapes balance against one another, and how their arrangement encourages the viewer's eye to follow a specific path. When it comes to illustration, composition is extremely important, and coming to understand it fundamentally changed how I approached my own work.
Marcos Mateu-Mestre's Framed Ink is among the best books out there on explaining composition, and how to think through the way in which you lay out your work.
Illustration is, at its core, storytelling, and understanding composition will arm you with the tools you'll need to tell stories that occur across a span of time, within the confines of a single frame.
Having your work reviewed by others is critical, as those who are just starting out aren't in a position to properly judge their own work, and won't be for quite some time. Don't be afraid to show your struggles - it's by analyzing your mistakes that we can help you grow. Perfect homework is not what we're looking for; we just need it to be complete.
There are currently two places you can get your work critiqued by the community - Reddit and our Discord Chat Server.
Both of these are completely free.
If you are interested in receiving extra help, I critique the work of those who support Drawabox on Patreon.
All of these private critiques are done through reddit, in specific threads where students post their work as a comment, including a link to their work (often hosted on Imgur, though most image hosts are okay).
My requirements are more strict than the free community critiques:
The minimum pledge for this lesson is $5.00/month. The orange button above will take you to the reddit thread for this lesson, you can post a link to your work there and I'll be notified. Once I catch the submission, I'll add it to this backlog spreadsheet.
Pledges are collected at the beginning of the following month, but you may start submitting your work immediately. If you're a new patron, I'll be reaching out to your shortly to collect your reddit username.
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