Super Simple Perspective Rules - Hand-Drawn Street View Challenge
This time, the theme is "Hand-Drawn Landscapes and Backgrounds."
In the past, if you wanted to go out for a plein air sketch, you had to carry various tools like sketchbooks, brushes, and paints, which were cumbersome and inconvenient. Nowadays, with the widespread use of tablet computers, advances in hardware and drawing software allow us to easily sketch anytime. By choosing different brushes and materials, you can simulate various styles such as pen and ink, watercolor, and oil paint, greatly enhancing creative freedom!
However, "streetscapes" are often associated with "perspective techniques."
For beginners, perspective can feel like a high wall: the angles of buildings, the extension of streets, the proportions of signs and vehicles often leave people unsure of where to start. Have you ever been deterred from sketching streetscapes because of this?
In fact, while sketching streetscapes requires some knowledge of perspective, it doesn't demand perfect technique. As long as you master some core rules and utilize brushes, you can draw streetscapes full of atmosphere!
I hope that after reading this sharing, you can break the idea of it being "difficult" and challenge yourself to draw your first streetscape sketch!
In this sharing, I will first compile some tips suitable for beginners, then challenge myself to draw a pencil and watercolor style streetscape using Clip Studio Paint, and further explain the first part's content with practical examples. I hope to make it easier for beginners to understand.
So, let's get started ✨
📝As always, the following sharing is just my personal preferred drawing method and does not represent the "only" way to draw!
💡【Tips for Drawing Streetscapes】
🟢Start with Simple Scenery or Composition
There's no need to challenge complex streets right from the start. Please begin with a single building, a simple street corner, or a small square.
For example, you can start by drawing this uniquely shaped building alone, without having to draw the surrounding streets, and it can still be a complete artwork!
After building some confidence, then practice drawing complete streetscapes to further hone your skills. Eventually, you'll be able to decide what scenery to include or omit based on your aesthetic judgment.
🟢Trees and Plants are Streetscape's Best Friends
Adding trees or plants to a streetscape can soften the image and create a contrast with buildings. Additionally, drawing trees doesn't require strong perspective skills. So, if there are trees in the streetscape in front of me, I prioritize starting the composition there!
For example, in the image below, the right image includes some trees, making the scene appear more layered.
(Of course, if there are no plants on the street, this technique won't apply.)
🟣Perspective Doesn't Need to Be Perfectly Precise
Since this drawing is in a hand-drawn style, the requirements for perspective are relatively more relaxed.
As long as the general direction is correct, a slight inaccuracy can actually add to the hand-drawn feel!
Don't be afraid to make mistakes, remember – the scene in front of you is your greatest support!
🟣First, Find the Eye Level (Horizon Line)
Although perfect precision isn't required, we still need to roughly find the position of the eye level (horizon line).
The eye level is the baseline for perspective, indicating the height of the observer's eyes (or camera lens). A common blind spot for beginners is to note that the eye level is not necessarily the same as the ground; these two are different.
For example, in the images below, both photos were taken from the same location: the left one was taken while standing, and the right one was taken while crouching. The eye level is higher on the left and lower on the right.
Evidently, the angles of the stone steps in both photos appear different: the left one seems to occupy more of the frame; the right one appears more compressed. —The position and proportion of objects on the canvas change due to the eye level.
Therefore, only after determining the eye level can we correctly arrange the angles of buildings and streets.
🟣Remember the Law of "Far Small, Near Large"
The same object appears larger up close and smaller in the distance.
This rule also applies to space: nearby distances appear expansive, while distant distances are compressed, looking more dense.
🟣Diagonal Lines on Object X and Y Sides Converge Towards the Eye Level
The diagonal lines on the left and right sides of an object, as shown in the diagram below.
These diagonal lines should extend towards the eye level, with their angles gradually flattening. Therefore, if a series of neat side lines appears in the image, pay attention to their slant when drawing. At a minimum, draw nearly parallel vanishing lines, and avoid awkward slants.
→How to Roughly Find the Eye Level (Horizon Line)?
If the scene has horizontally aligned objects, you can extend the lines to their intersection.
The intersection is the "vanishing point", and generally, all "vanishing points" are located on the eye level.
For example, in the image below, I extended the left and right windows and the edges of the street pavement to find that the eye level is roughly at the purple position.
If the scene doesn't have clearly converging object lines, you can use some box-shaped objects.
For example, in the image below:
① The position marked in purple: because you can see the bottom of this box, and it converges downwards, it is inferred that the eye level is below.
② The position marked in blue: because you can see the top of this box, and it converges upwards, it is inferred that the eye level is above.
③ The position marked in red: the top of the box is almost invisible, only a very narrow part can be seen. Therefore, it can be inferred that the eye level is approximately here, slightly lower.
However, please note that the above methods only apply to objects parallel to the ground plane.
For example, the green eaves in the image below.
Because the eaves are slanted downwards, even if they are above the eye level, the observer can still see their top.
The vanishing point of slanted objects is not on the eye level; therefore, we cannot use them to find the eye level.
🟡Flexible Use of Colors
There's no need to be overly constrained by realistic colors.
We can create atmosphere by changing the colors used, for example, using cool colors to convey tranquility, and warm colors to convey liveliness.
In fact, the same scene will take on different colors under different times and lighting conditions! Therefore, even if you want to restore a realistic scene, there is still room for choice in the color palette.
🟡Pay Attention to Elements That Can Be Freely Arranged
Although it's called a "streetscape," as a place where humans live, adding figures can definitely add a finishing touch!
Figures can bring life to a streetscape, and you can freely arrange their poses and positions to make the scene more narrative.
Additionally, clouds, birds, etc., can also be freely arranged. Even in realistic streetscapes, there's room for artists to unleash their creativity!
🔴Avoid Challenging Slopes or Long Staircases at First
Slopes and stairs are harder to draw than imagined; their vanishing points are not on the eye level, thus requiring more precise perspective skills when drawing.
It is generally recommended for beginners to start with flat ground and then challenge these elements after becoming familiar with perspective.
✍【Practical Application】
🟩Line Art
The reference image for this example is a street photo I took several years ago while traveling in Tokyo.
First, please find the approximate position of the eye level.
Here, I drew extended vanishing lines based on the positions of the windows and balconies, finding that the eye level roughly falls at the purple position.
For the eye level position, just having a general idea is sufficient.
I usually start by adding a background color layer at the very bottom to simulate the color of real paper.
Here, I used a slightly orange-tinted gray (#E9E8E7) as the base color.
Then, I sketched out the rough layout.
Then, I drew the line art. Here, I used Clip Studio Paint's default pencil brush in dark gray.
First, draw the buildings, then the small objects, then the lamp posts and the ground.
For distant scenery, a simple outline is sufficient.
When drawing, remember that vanishing lines converge towards the eye level.
In streetscapes, commonly arranged objects like windows require special attention.
The lines might not be perfectly straight, and the angle might not be perfectly precise, but from top to bottom, you must draw them following a consistent trend.
Also, don't forget narrower planes.
For example, with this side profile, since the eye level is below, it should converge downwards.
At the very least, draw lines that are nearly horizontal (implying the vanishing point is very far from the center of the canvas), but never draw upward diagonal lines, otherwise, the building will be drawn as a non-rectangular prism or a rectangular prism placed at an angle.
Remember "far small, near large" – distant road markings should not be thicker than nearby ones.
Lamp posts are also common in streetscape themes; remember this rule when drawing identical lamp posts.
Usually, distant scenery is omitted when drawing.
You can intentionally use finer brushes and lighter colors to draw distant elements.
You can also adjust after completing the line art using the following functions:
- To lighten lines: After adding a new layer, set it as a layer mask, and paint lighter colors in the desired areas.
- To make lines thinner:
【Correct line】→【Correct line width】→【Thinner with specified width】→Paint on the target location.
🟩Coloring
Here I used a transparent watercolor brush; you can download your favorite brush from Clip Studio Assets.
Coloring is relatively simple:
1. Paint the sky.
2. Apply large-area shadows (here, a Multiply layer was used).
3. Paint the colors of the scenery.
4. On some clearly visible 3D elements, such as the eaves on the left and the underside of the balcony, apply a second layer of shadow.
5. Paint glowing small objects.
Since it's simulating a hand-drawn sketch effect, color overflow and gaps are allowed.
Below are the colors with the line art layer turned off, which are actually quite rough.
6. Use a pencil to strengthen brushstrokes in dark areas.
7. Same as above, strengthen highlights (e.g., rim light).
8. Add figures.
9. Emphasize the atmospheric perspective in the distance.
Add a new layer and set the blending mode to "Screen." Use an airbrush to paint brown in the center.
💡Since this is sunset, brown was used. If it's a sunny day, you can use gray-blue.
🟩Post-Processing
- Composite Paper Texture
Here, the following texture material was used:
You can also download your favorite textures from Clip Studio Assets.
Searching for "paper texture" and "image material" will bring up many different user-uploaded materials:
🔧Method:
1. Drag and drop the image material directly onto the canvas.
2. Drag twice (= two material layers).
3. Top texture material: First invert the colors (【Edit】→【Tonal Correction】→【Invert Colors】/ ctrl+I) → Set layer blending mode to "Screen."
4. Bottom texture material: Set layer blending mode to "Multiply."
5. Reduce the opacity of both layers to below 50%, adjust according to your preference.
💡Adding texture will reduce the overall contrast.
Since actual watercolor pigments absorbed by drawing paper also produce a similar effect, I decided to retain this slightly lower contrast.
- Color Adjustment: Using Tonal Correction Layers
Although the current colors of the image are very similar to the reference photo, I wanted to add more warm colors, so I decided to use tonal correction layers for adjustment.
🔧Method:
1. Top left corner of the Layer panel 【☰】→ 【New Tonal Correction Layer】→【Gradient Map】
2. Select 【Foreground to Background】 (first set to red and green) →【OK】
3. Set the layer's blending mode to "Hue" and opacity to "50%" (can be adjusted as desired)
Using a gradient map, you can control lighter areas to be reddish and darker areas to be greenish, creating a color contrast.
If you want the entire image to turn red, you can also use the 【Hue】/ 【Color Balance】 tonal correction layers.
- Adding a White Frame: Using Layer Masks
The illustration is basically complete!
On this basis, I added a simulated white frame to further mimic the feel of actual artwork.
(In actual watercolor creation, masking tape is often used to fix the paper edges to prevent paint from going beyond the boundaries. Therefore, whether to add this white frame is entirely up to personal preference and not a necessary step.)
🔧Method:
1. Add a layer mask to the line art layer folder, and erase the edge areas on the mask.
2. Repeat the above action on the color layer folder.
→The erased areas of both are slightly offset to create a hand-drawn feel.
Done!
【Conclusion】
Thank you for reading this far!
Streetscape sketching may seem complex, but it's not out of reach. Master basic perspective concepts and start with simple compositions to gradually build confidence!
I apologize that this demonstration was a bit rough, but you can definitely use the methods above to create more detailed illustrations!
What do you think of this sharing?
If you liked this article, please feel free to like or leave a comment to let me know! See you next time ✨
Users who liked this post
Comment