Introduction

When you start drawing, there is something that all budding artists dread: perspective. "Vanishing points", "horizon line" and so on, are words that could scare some people, and I understand! For years, I myself preferred to avoid drawing scenery in my illustrations for fear of difficulty. But those days are over! Since I started using Clip Studio Paint's perspective ruler, everything is easier.

In the first part, we will review the basics of perspective.

In the second part, we will see how to use Clip Studio Paint's perspective ruler step by step. You will see, it is not very complicated.

In the last part, I will present the process of creating a scenery illustration!

I. Reminder on the perspective

Perspective is used to reproduce what we see in three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. A good knowledge of the basics of perspective is essential for drawing sets, but you will see that it is not so complicated!

1. Horizon lines and vanishing point

The horizon line is at your eye level. Depending on your height or position, the height of the line may vary:

The vanishing point is located on the horizon line. It is the point towards which parallel lines seem to converge:

The vanishing lines, which we will call “reference points” in this article, give a scale of size to what lies between us and the horizon point:

2. The different types of perspectives

There are actually 4 types of perspective and not 3:

The cavalier perspective

The frontal perspective (1 vanishing point)

The oblique perspective (2 vanishing points)

The aerial perspective (3 vanishing points)

 

The cavalier perspective is a bit special because it has no vanishing point. Parallel lines remain parallel and do not converge to any point:

Frontal perspective has a vanishing point. We can only observe two sides of the object:

Oblique perspective has 2 vanishing points that are placed on the horizon. The two faces of the object are pointing away from each other towards the horizon:

Aerial perspective has 3 vanishing points, two of the three points are placed on the horizon. This gives an impression of height and depth to the drawing:

I. First steps with the perspective rule

Drawing in perspective on paper is often quite difficult and it can be easy to get confused. But with Clip Studio Paint's perspective ruler, everything becomes easier and more intuitive!

1. Add a vanishing point

First, create a new project by clicking on [File], [New], [Illustration] and then [OK].

On the left, you will find the toolbar. Click on [Ruler], the square icon:

In the [Create Ruler] box, click [Perspective Ruler]:

Now let’s start by creating a vanishing point.

In the [Tool Property] box, click [Add Vanishing Point]:

Simply click on your canvas and you will see a first line appear:

Then click on the screen a second time and a second line will appear. You can hold your pen down on the screen to adjust where the two lines will intersect. The place where these two lines intersect will be the vanishing point.

When you lift your pen off the screen, you should see this:

1. The purple cross corresponds to the vanishing point.

2. The blue line corresponds to the horizon line.

And there you have it, as easy as that, you have just created a 1-point perspective!

Before you start drawing, activate on the command bar [Snap to special ruler] so that your lines follow the perspective ruler:

You can start drawing right away. You’ll notice that your pen is like magnetized to the perspective lines you just created. That’s the magic of Clip Studio Paint! There’s no more mistakes possible since the lines you draw are automatically guided to the vanishing point.

2. Add multiple vanishing points

To create a two or three point perspective, simply repeat the steps outlined above.

Click on your canvas once to make the first marker appear and a second time to create the vanishing point.

 

Note: Make sure that the second vanishing point is on the horizon line when you place it if you want to create a non-tilted two-point perspective.

For three-point perspective, place the third vanishing point above or below the horizon line:

If you want to delete a vanishing point or guide line, select [delete vanishing point] or [delete guide] in the operation bar:

Then click on the item you want to delete and that's it!

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Trick

If you’re having trouble figuring out where to place your vanishing points, don’t hesitate to use reference photos! Find a landscape photo that matches the perspective you have in mind for your illustration and observe where the vanishing points are. This will make it easier to create your perspective grid:

(I took the picture shown here myself.)

 

 

3. Move the perspective grid

If you want to move your perspective grid, click on the [Scale/Rotate] icon:

You can drag your perspective grid wherever you want, enlarge or shrink it:

Note: If your artwork is on a layer other than the perspective grid, select the layer by pressing here:

II. Creation of an illustration

Now that you know how to use the perspective ruler in Clip Studio Paint, let’s get down to business: creating a scenery illustration!

I chose to draw my favorite place: a coffee shop! One of the things I love to do is draw in a coffee shop while sipping a delicious drink.

In this part, I will show you step by step how I create a detailed scenery with depth using the perspective ruler.

1. Start from a sketch

To create my cafe setting, I start by drawing a quick sketch.

This helps to give a general overview of the illustration and to know where the vanishing points are:

As seen in the previous part, I will add guide lines to create my first vanishing point:

In my sketch, you can see that there are two vanishing points. So I add two more guide lines to create my second vanishing point:

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Trick

You may notice that the vanishing points you placed do not match those in the sketch.

For example, here, my vanishing point is too close to the horizon line:

But don't panic, changing the placement of the vanishing points is very simple.

Click on the [Operation] icon then on one of the vanishing points:

Click the vanishing point again.

You can now move it on the horizon line:

You can also change the position of the horizon line by moving the vanishing point up or down:

2. Definition of main volumes

Now that my perspective ruler suits me, I will be able to use it to draw the main volumes of my decor.

Making a draft to determine the main volumes allows me to see if the proportions and perspective are correct. When I draw a decor, I always start with a draft before moving on to the sketch. Indeed, the fact that there are many elements (like tables, chairs, etc.) can seem daunting and it is easy to make mistakes in the proportions or to misalign the objects. I therefore advise you not to skip this step!

 

First, I reduce the opacity of my sketch and then I create a new layer above it.

Then click on the [Define ruler display area] icon and select the [Show in all layers] box. This will allow you to draw in a different layer than the one where you created the perspective ruler:

1st step: I draw the lines to define the volume of my room:

Step 2: I add the largest pieces of furniture, here the counter and the windows:

Step 3: I add the tables and chairs. I make sure they are well aligned with each other:

Step 4: I add the shelves:

3. Adding details

I will be able to start drawing the sketch that will serve as a model for the inking.

I first make the sketch layer invisible then I reduce the opacity of the main volumes layer.

On a new layer, I start drawing the elements that make up my decor with more details, while relying on the main volumes drawn just before. Make sure that the perspective rule is always displayed in all layers:

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The perspective ruler is used here to draw straight lines, but for curves and circular arcs, we can use the [Figure] tool:

Click on the [Figure] icon, then select the tool you want.

For example here, I would like to add an arc on the top part of my window so I choose [Ellipse] :

Place the tip of your pen where you want the center of your ellipse to be. Then drag your pen to adjust the size and width. The advantage here is that the perspective ruler automatically adjusts your ellipse to match the perspective:

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The decor of my café also includes many objects that are quite difficult to draw like chairs, light fixtures…

The perspective rule allows me to know where to place them. For the chairs for example, I defined their placement just before on the main volumes layer. But to draw them in the most credible way possible, I will use 3D objects to help me:

Since this article does not focus on 3D objects, here is a link for those who would like to learn how to handle them:

So I place the chair in the indicated place, then on another layer, I trace the edges. This makes my task much easier because some furniture is quite difficult to draw. You just have to be careful to place the 3D objects in the right place to respect the perspective:

For details like cakes or plates, I deactivate my perspective ruler by unchecking the [Show in all layers] box:

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Trick

If you want to erase a line, while following the perspective lines, just use the eraser [Magnetize the eraser]:

You can then erase the lines you want very precisely:

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Here is the finished detailed sketch:

3. Inking and final touches

Once I've finished my sketch, I can move on to inking!

Here is the line drawing I made following my sketch from the previous step:

And here is the final drawing after adding colors and shadows!

Conclusion :

I hope this article was useful to you and that it made you want to draw scenery! Before discovering the perspective ruler of Clip Studio Paint, I dreaded having to draw scenery because drawing in perspective was something very difficult and painful. But now I can say that I enjoy drawing scenery and that I find it almost soothing. I just have to draw lines and they automatically follow the perspective lines, it's magic! Thank you for reading this article to the end!