Perspective and the image making process.

To master drawing in perspective, you have to move through three distinct states of mind: the graphic, the spatial, and the mathematical. Here is how to bridge the gap between a loose sketch and a technical blueprint.

Phase 1: The Thinking Process

Famous Artists Schools. Famous Artists Course: Lesson 3, Composition. Famous Artists Schools Inc., 1960.

Before you pick up a ruler, you must think like a designer. Start with small rectangular boxes to explore theHierarchy of Shapes. A successful composition relies on the BMS (Big, Medium, Small) principle. Your most important elements should be the primary focus. Either placed near the center of the composition, scaled as the largest shapes, or given the highest level of contrast. Without this variation in size and importance, a drawing feels cluttered and lacks a clear narrative.

Muroi, Yasuo. Anime Shijuku-ryuu: Saisoku de Nandemo Egakeru You ni Naru Kyara Sakuga no Gijutsu [Anime Private School Style: Character Drawing Techniques to Become Able to Draw Anything as Fast as Possible]. X-Knowledge, 2017. https://amzn.to/4rlYAjB

Once the shapes are established, move into value studies using the Value Matrix by Bill Perkins. Rather than drawing lines or specific objects, you are designing a pattern of light and dark. Limit your composition to a maximum of three or four tones. Organize these into specific **Value Keys**: High Key (mostly light), Mid Key (balanced), or Low Key (mostly dark).

Perkins, B. (2023). Composition for the visual artist live class – current class recordings [Video]. New Masters Academy. https://www.nma.art/videolessons/composition-for-the-visual-artist-live-class-current-class-recordings/

By grouping your darks and lights together into large, clear masses, you create a high-impact, poster-like design. This "graphic" approach ensures the viewer’s eye is immediately pulled toward your focal point before any technical perspective is even applied.

The Perfectly summarize Paul Felix image making process. Kennedy, Mark. "Paul Felix Layout Notes." Temple of the Seven Golden Camels, 30 Nov. 2011, sevencamels.blogspot.com/2011/11/paul-felix-layout-notes.html.

Phase 2: Defining the Viewer/ Camera

Kolesov, S. (2024). Space envelope: Dealing with perspective [Digital video and materials]. Gumroad. https://peleng.gumroad.com/l/SpaceEnvelope

Now you must define the physics of your "camera." Perspective is not about the object you are drawing; it is about where the artist is standing. The Station Point represents your eye's fixed position. If you stand too close to your subject, the drawing will appear distorted and warped.

Whitehead, C. (2022, May 22). Vanishing points with the cone of vision [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-21p22lCQE.

To keep the drawing believable, stay within the Cone of Vision, which is a 60-degree field of view radiating from your eye. Any object placed outside this circle will look unnaturally stretched.

Phase 3: The Mathematical Framework

To find your vanishing points scientifically, use the 90-Degree Rule. Imagine a right angle at your Station Point. Where the sides of that angle hit the Horizon Line, that is where your Left and Right Vanishing Points are located. As you rotate your head, these points slide along the horizon, but they always maintain that 90-degree relationship to your eye.

You then use Measuring Points (found by rotating the distance from the vanishing point to the station point up to the horizon) to transfer those real-world measurements into deep space. If you want a box to be exactly 5 inches deep, the Measuring Point tells you exactly where to cut the line.

Phase 4: Constructing Volume

Every complex object, from a sports car to a human figure, starts as a simple box.

Famous Artists Schools. Famous Artists Course: Lesson 2, FORM. Famous Artists Schools Inc., 1960.

When drawing organic forms like trees or mountains, do not paint them as flat shapes. Build them as simple volumes like cylinders or spheres on your perspective grid first. This ensures they have weight and occupy real space.

Famous Artists Schools. Famous Artists Course: Lesson 2, FORM. Famous Artists Schools Inc., 1960.

Phase 5: Light and Atmosphere

Finish the drawing by anchoring objects with light physics. For sunlight, shadows follow the standard vanishing points because sun rays are parallel. For artificial light like a lamp, you must drop a vertical line to the floor to find the specific vanishing point for that shadow.

Station Point!

The "Digital Trap" in Drawing Apps

画角ノススメ 電子版 (Gakaku no Susume: Denshi-ban / Recommendation of Field of View: Digital Edition)

If you’ve ever used the perspective rulers in Clip Studio Paint or the guides in Procreate and felt like your drawing looked warped you’re likely confused on where is the most optimal place to place the vanishing point.. These apps allow you to drop vanishing points anywhere, but if you keep them both inside the borders of your canvas, you are effectively telling the viewer that the camera is only inches away from the subject. This creates a frantic, distorted wide-angle look. And when you want to rotate a cube one space that isn’t parallel to other objects, you might get confused on where to place the new vanishing points.

While the common advice is to just "move the vanishing points further apart," it’s rarely explained why that works. And when you want to rotate a cube one space that isn’t parallel to other objects, you might get confused on where to place the new vanishing points. The truth is that the distance between your vanishing points is actually dictated by an invisible third point: the Station Point.

Attebery, C. (2018). The complete guide to perspective drawing: From one-point to six-point. Routledge. https://amzn.to/4pRMHRa

What is ‘em Station Pointy thingyamabob?

In perspective, we tend to obsess over the vanishing points on the horizon, but the most important part of the scene is actually behind the canvas. This is the Station Point, and it represents exactly where you’ve placed your audience.

Attebery, C. (2018). The complete guide to perspective drawing: From one-point to six-point. Routledge. https://amzn.to/4pRMHRa

Think of it as a creative choice: do you want the audience to be in the thick of the action or a bit more removed? When you bring the Station Point closer to the "picture plane" (your canvas), it forces the vanishing points together and creates that wide-angle distortion. By understanding that the Station Point is your physical location in the world, you realize that "moving the points apart" is actually just the act of stepping back to give your subject some breathing room.

This a great example of a wide angle style type of drawing. Kim, D. H. (2017). Space drawing: Perspective. Superani. https://superanius.com/products/dong-ho-kim

The Secret to Rotating Objects

The Station Point isn't just for choosing a view; it’s a tool for construction. One of the hardest things to do in visual development is rotating a vehicle or a prop without it looking like the corners are melting or changing shape. It’s easy to accidentally draw a box with 60-degree corners when they should be a perfect 90 degrees.

This is probably one of the best explanation video on how to rotate a cube based on the station point and cone of vision(Cone of Vision can also be thought of as a tool to how close you are to the subject). The trick is to remember that in a standard setup, the lines connecting your two vanishing points back to your Station Point must form a perfect 90-degree corner. Imagine a carpenter’s square sitting on the floor at your feet. If you want to rotate an object, you simply pivot that 90-degree corner at your Station Point. Wherever those two "arms" hit your horizon line, those are your new, perfectly accurate vanishing points. This takes the guesswork out of the process and ensures your objects stays consistent no matter which way it turns.

Character Line Up

The Foundation of the Silhouette

How many of these characters can you recognize?

Designing a professional character cast begins with a commitment to clarity over complexity. The foundation of this entire process is the silhouette. If you strip a character down to a solid black shape and they are no longer recognizable, the design has failed to establish a clear identity. A strong silhouette is the ultimate test of a character's readability. Iconic designs in animation history are famous because they can be identified by their Silhouettes alone. This level of clarity is achieved by avoiding visual clutter and focusing on big, identifiable shapes that define the character's physical presence from a distance.

Psychology of Shape Language

Bill Perkin’s had this pinned up on the wall during the producion of Aladdin.

Shape language serves as the psychological DNA within that silhouette. Every primary shape carries a subconscious meaning that tells the audience how to feel about a character before they ever speak. A square suggests stability, reliability, and stubbornness. It is the shape of a character who acts as a literal wall or a protector. A circle feels friendly, soft, and approachable, making it the standard choice for protagonists we are meant to trust. A triangle, with its sharp corners and tapering lines, implies speed, danger, and intensity. By committing to a specific shape motif, you create a visual shorthand that communicates personality with immediate impact.

3dtotal Publishing, editor. Fundamentals of Character Design: How to Create Engaging Characters for Illustration, Animation & Game Design. 3dtotal Publishing, 2020. Section by Stephanie Garcia Rizo https://amzn.to/4jZLqGj

Internal BMS and Utility

3dtotal Publishing, editor. Fundamentals of Character Design: How to Create Engaging Characters for Illustration, Animation & Game Design. 3dtotal Publishing, 2020. Section by Kenneth Anderson https://amzn.to/4jZLqGj

To make these shapes functional, you must apply the core tools of visual hierarchy. These principles act as a map for the eye, ensuring the most important narrative information is processed first. Size and scale are the most immediate of these tools, utilized through the big, medium, and small principle. By making one specific element of a character much larger than the rest, you create an internal anchor. This is particularly effective when applied to the three section method. Making the head the big section highlights intelligence, while making the legs the big section highlights speed. This internal hierarchy tells the viewer exactly what the character's specialty is.

Contrast and Visual Bullseyes

Nielson, S. (n.d.). Fundamentals of lighting [Online course]. Schoolism. https://schoolism.com/courses/concept-art/fundamentals-of-lighting-sam-nielson

Contrast and value further refine this hierarchy by creating a bullseye for the viewer. Hierarchy is established by how much an object stands out from its environment. Placing high contrast areas at the primary point of interest, such as the face or a unique weapon, ensures the eye knows exactly where to land. If every part of the design has the same level of detail and contrast, the viewer experiences visual fatigue. By simplifying the values in secondary areas, you focus the viewer’s attention where it matters most. There are a lot of options available for our tool belt. However, a great place to start is the top 3. Hue, Value, and Saturation.

The Rollercoaster Lineup

Aladdin Character Lineup.

In a lineup, these tools help create the rollercoaster effect. You want to avoid the boring train track where every character is the same height and width, creating a flat, uninteresting horizontal line. Instead, a successful lineup uses the rollercoaster analogy, where the viewer's eye bounces up and down, traveling from a tall, thin character to a short, wide one. This variety in height and mass prevents the cast from feeling stagnant.

Smiling Friends Background Characters.

Finalizing Uniqueness

Highly recognizable characters

To finalize the uniqueness of each member, you add a signature quirk or a weird shape. This is one specific hook, like a massive hat, a strange hairstyle, or an unusual prop, that belongs only to them. This ensures they stand out in a crowd and gives them a recognizable "brand." This combination of internal structure and group variety ensures a cast that is both memorable and easy to read.

The Magic of the Mark: Drawing is THE Universal Human Language

Drawing is fundamental to being human. I’ve never to meet a child who didn’t instinctively love making marks or drawing. While the barrier to entry is as low as a pencil and a scrap of paper, the actual power of drawing is vast.

A glimpse into the past: The Great Hall of the Bulls in the Lascaux caves, France. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux#/media/File:Lascaux_painting.jpg

To understand its potential, look at the cave walls of Lascaux. Those drawings were made thousands of years ago, yet the representation is so clear we can’t help but feel an immediate connection to our ancestors. Drawing is, in many ways, a form of magic. It is the ultimate blueprint for human innovation. Every blueprint for a cathedral, every CAD drawing for a product, and every tangible thought began as a drawing on a page. It is THOUGHT given form before it becomes MATERIAL.

This is where drawing finds its most practical power: it allows us to share the unshareable. When words fail to describe the specific curvature of a car or a complex idea, the drawing speaks. It acts as a universal translator, bypassing language barriers and connecting one mind to another through simple mark making.

The First Element: The Invention of the Line

Alexandre-Charles Guillemot, The Myth of Dibutade or the Invention of Drawing, 1825.

We can’t pinpoint exactly when humans developed the concept of a "line," but history is full of legends about its origin. The Roman author Pliny the Elder tells a story of a potter’s daughter in Corinth. Her lover was leaving for a journey, and she couldn't bear to let him go without capturing his likeness. As lamplight cast his shadow on the wall, she traced the outline, preserving his silhouette in a single, unbroken line.

While we now have evidence of even earlier drawings in caves, the concept remains the same, the line is our most basic tool, yet it possesses infinite possibilities.

The Paradox of the Line

The use of line is intuitive. Give a toddler a crayon, and they’ll instinctively produce scribbles. As we grow, we use these marks to map our understanding of the world. However, there is a curious paradox. In the physical world, lines don’t actually exist. We don’t see black outlines around trees or people. Instead, we perceive edges, where one shape meets another, or where light meets shadow. The line is a uniquely human invention, a system of representation we created to impose order on visual reality.

What a Line Can Do

The Metropolitan Museum o f Art, New York

Van Gogh Museum,

A line is more than just a mark; it is a vehicle for information. It has the power to define edges, distinguishing an object from the space around it. It can direct the eye, creating pathways that lead the viewer’s gaze through a composition. Line also expresses texture, using scratchy or rhythmic marks to suggest surface quality, and it suggests volume by using varying thickness to imply weight, shadow, and depth. It is the foundation upon which all design and forms are built.

Famous Artists Schools. Famous Artists Course: Lesson 3, Composition. Famous Artists Schools Inc., 1960.

Line Quality: The Artist’s Vocabulary

Huston, Steve. Figure Drawing for Artists: Making Every Mark Count. Rockport Publishers, 2016. https://amzn.to/3LKyTdg

If drawing is a language, line quality is the vocabulary. By manipulating how we draw a line, we change what we communicate. This involves three primary dimensions: path, weight, and edge.

First, consider the path and flow. A confident, continuous line conveys speed and sleekness. These are the silent heroes of a drawing, providing structure without distraction. Straight paths provide stability for architecture, while curved lines offer the organic movement found in living things. Short, sketchy lines often called "hairy lines" when used by beginners can serve a vital purpose for the master, capturing vibration and the softness of a form.

Mattesi, Michael D. FORCE: Dynamic Life Drawing: 10th Anniversary Edition. 3rd ed., CRC Press, 2017. https://amzn.to/49yndU9

Second, we look at weight and value. Line weight refers to thickness, which is a primary tool for creating a visual hierarchy. Thick lines appear to advance toward the viewer and suggest shadow, while thin lines recede. Similarly, shifting from light to dark values allows you to establish atmosphere and lighting without ever using a shading tool.

Michelangelo use of varying line weight to capture form and depth! Michelangelo, Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (around 1510-11)Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (24.197.2 recto)

Finally, consider the edge and texture. A hard edge provides a crisp, clear boundary, perfect for man made materials and focal points. A soft edge blurs into its surroundings, creating the atmospheric haze needed for skin, clouds, or distant horizons.

Application I: The Discipline of Design

When we focus on design, we are less concerned with realism and more concerned with the arrangement and rhythm of the two dimensional surface. In this discipline, the line is used to manage the flat space of the page.

Even if you don’t appreciate abstract works of art. I think it is important to take a moment and appreciate how these works of art expand our visual vocabulary.

Franz Kline, Untitled, 1957. Oil on canvas, 79 x 112 1/8 inches. Courtesy Mnuchin Gallery. © 2025 The Franz Kline Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

One way this works is through partitioning space. A line does more than describe a subject; it divides the paper into positive and negative spaces. Effective design ensures that the empty negative space is just as visually interesting as the positive shapes. Design also relies on the silhouette to create a clear "read." A strong silhouette allows a viewer to identify an object instantly, even without internal detail. Furthermore, by repeating lines with specific qualities, we create decorative patterns and motifs. This is the basis of textiles and graphic branding, famously seen in the deliberate, rhythmic marks of Van Gogh’s drawings.

Van Gogh, Vincent. The Harvest (for Émile Bernard). 1888, reed pen and ink on paper, 31.8 x 24.1 cm. Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin.

Application II: The Discipline of Form

If design is about organization, form is about deception. The goal of this application is to trick the human eye into seeing depth, weight, and volume on a surface that is actually flat. Here, the line becomes a structural tool.

Famous Artists Schools. Famous Artists Course: Lesson 2, Form. Famous Artists Schools Inc., 1960.

Artists use cross contours, which function like the "ribs" of a drawing. By drawing lines that follow the terrain of an object, like a rubber band wrapped around a cylinder, you define the object's volume. Linear perspective provides the mathematical use of the line, aiming marks toward a vanishing point to mimic how the human eye perceives distance. Finally, form is defined by light through hatching and density. By increasing the number of lines in a specific area, you create value, giving an object the appearance of being hit by a light source.

Mateu-Mestre, Marcos. Framed Drawing Techniques: Mastering Storytelling Through Graphic Design. Design Studio Press, 2019. https://amzn.to/4bfEZNf

Combing the magic!

Even though we should study each part separately, so we can have a deeper understanding of the specifics. The hallmark of a seasoned artist is the ability to satisfy both design and form simultaneously through line economy. As mastery grows, you learn to execute a single, elegant stroke that defines a beautiful, flat design shape while simultaneously utilizing varying line weight to suggest the volume of a form.

Kim Jung Gi Demonstrating how to turn a Simple 2D shape into something with form!

Form, body, structure-- Trial class-From the series【100 Lessons Kim Junggi】https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztt22A_takM

Creating Depth Without Linear Perspective

Ernest Norling, Perspective Made Easy, Dover Publications (1999).https://amzn.to/45nxnV7

Whenever we talk about depth in art, the conversation usually shifts toward railroad tracks and vanishing points. Linear perspective is an awesome, but it can feel rigid and overly technical, sometimes it can be hard to draw what you want with the perspective assist turned on in procreate!

For most of art history, people weren't using rulers or grids. They relied on a set of observational techniques to make a flat page feel like a three-dimensional world. Here are so methods you can look for when creating your composition.

Overlapping

Overlapping to show the square in front.

This is the most fundamental way we perceive space. If one shape covers part of another, the one on top is closer. Think about this in layers. These 2 examples, the shapes are the same size. The difference is just overlapping. If you’re drawing a mountain range, you just tuck one peak behind the other to create an instant "front and back." This works for anything from a landscape to a few objects sitting on a desk.

Now the circle is front with just overlapping.

Atmospheric Perspective and Value Contrast

Distant objects look different because of the air between you and the subject. To pull this off, remember that distance reduces contrast.

Seiji Yoshida, Tips to Make You Want to Draw, Pie International (2021)

In the foreground, use your darkest color and brightest color. As things move into the distance, you want to compress those values. Shadows should get lighter and highlights should get darker until everything settles into a mid-tone grey. At the same time, shift your shadow colors toward the atmosphere’s color, like the sky,and let your details blur. Rayleigh scattering is the scientific reason behind atmospheric perspective. It’s the effect of light hitting molecules in the air, which scatters shorter blue wavelengths more than others.

Seiji Yoshida, Tips to Make You Want to Draw, Pie International (2021) This demonstrates the difference between atmosphere on earth vs no atmosphere in space.

Vertical Placement

The higher something is on the page, the further away it generally looks. Think about standing in a field: the grass at your feet is at the bottom of your vision, while the trees on the horizon are much higher up. Generally speaking, we are prone to feeling like the eye level line is higher on the picture plane, since are eyes are places higher on our bodies. However, The most precise interpretation is that of the digram below.

Bruce Block, The Visual Story, Routledge (2020).https://amzn.to/49vgryp

Relative Scale

If you draw two similar objects and make one significantly smaller than the other, the brain assumes the smaller one is further away. You don't need a grid for this; you just have to be intentional with your sizing. It’s an effective way to establish a sense of scale or drama very quickly.

Edge Quality

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, directed by Michel Gondry (2004). https://amzn.to/464W2hl

Our eyes can’t focus on everything at once. If you’re looking at a primary subject, the background naturally blurs. I save my sharpest, most defined lines for the focal point or the foreground. For everything else, I let the edges get soft or "lost." This creates a natural focus that feels more lifelike than using the same heavy line weight everywhere.

Parallel Projection

Heiji Monogatari Emaki (Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace), Kamakura period (13th century).

This approach is common in video games and traditional East Asian art. It completely ignores the rule that things get smaller as they recede. Instead, parallel lines stay parallel. Whether it's an isometric view or an oblique sketch, it’s a very clean way to show a room or a building without the "pinched" look of linear perspective.

Combine for Best results

The best results usually come from mixing these techniques. You might have a firm edged object in the foreground overlapping a mountain that is faded into a soft, low-contrast atmospheric blue in the background. It’s often more effective to use these observational tricks to get your composition ready. Sometime, our linear perspective could be correct but feels off still and we can use these techniques to help edit our compositions!

Asaro/Reilly Method

I've been studying the Asaro head for a few years now. Every time I do a study I learn something that is valuable. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to painting.

First, There's the Richard Schmid idea of painting exactly what you see; Painting every color and shape as you see it. That is great for observation. I have known many artists that can draw and paint from pure observation.  Second, it's the analytic artist who needs to be able to comprehend or simplify the shape before they can truly paint it.

I find that I fit more in the latter category, but like most people, nothing is purely binary. Both methods are extremely useful together. That's why I have found the Reilly/Asaro method very useful. Reilly’s method is for gestural relationships on a 2d surface and the Asaro is the concept of a 3-dimensional object.

Reinterpreting and making Asaro work for me.

I have incorporated my own personal perspective on studying(pun intended). By placing the box on the Asaro head, I am reminding myself of the 3-dimensional properties of the head. This way I am also playing with the iconography of the 2-dimensional shape and the type of "lens" I am using.

This tool is also incredibly helpful when it comes to painting. In the painting, below I was about to use the polygon tool to make the simple shapes. Of course, the colors are achieved by using outside knowledge of light and color theory. But understanding the planes and rhythms of the head makes a painting from your imagination similar to this so much easier.

The Asaro head may seem stiff but once you know the basic ideas of the form and its proportions, you can use it to exaggerate and play with it.

The Asaro head is one of the best tools that I have ever used to study the head.  There are several tutorials out there, paid and unpaid, but none of them are truly complete. Most of the tutorials require extensive outside knowledge to bring to the table.

Other resources

Jack Faragasso’s book is probably the most complete instructions I have found on the web for the Reilly method. It is probably more complete than 99 percent of the tutorials out there. I am pretty glad that they are publishing it again.

Affiliate links

https://amzn.to/4s98eqR

Where to purchase the Asaro head.

Not an Affiliate link.

The Guide that comes with it is very helpful to understanding the Reilly and Asaro method.

https://www.planesofthehead.com/original_head.php

3d models of the Asaro head

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/asaro-head-9d26548182f8465a8e97371a9170561e

John Asaro’s website

https://johnasaro.com/home.html

Digital Painting Process