A Beginner’s Guide to Perspective in Car Drawings-What Is Perspective? How You Can Use It To Draw Cars?

Most people can draw cars like this:

(Looking straight at the profile of a car)

This is an awsome way to start. But later on, you will-like I did, once upon a time-want to look at your car at more angles. I mean…Come on…which one looks sexier?

(Tesla at 1/4 view v.s. flat sided view)

That is where perspective comes in!

What is perspective?

Take this rectangular block. If you look straight down at it, all you see if a perfect rectangle. But looking at the top from an angle, you see something completely different.

(a GIF from Fusion 360 of me rotateing a rectangular block)

(Looking straight down vs at an angle)

The edges father from you appear to be shorter than the edges closer to you. This makes total sense. Take two things of the same size. The one placed closer to you will always look bigger.

(Next time you look at trees, you will appreciate the beauty of perspective Mother Nature has gifted us.)

This, we call the one-point perspective.

It’s called “one-point” because all the parallel edges in a rectangular block will converge to a single point on the horizon if we extend them.

(Earth is not flat, people. Prove it to yourself by laying infinitely many bricks, all the way to the end of the horizon! From the book Perspective Made Easy)

This can be applied to car drawings when you are looking down at a car at an angle.

(The back of a car, fitted inside a brick)

Good? Let’s then take a look at a more sophisticated version of perspective: the two-point perspective.

If in one-point perspective, all parallel edges converge to one point on the horizon, then in two point perspective, two sets of paralle edges converge to two points on the horizontal.

(A brick in two point perspective)

This, we call the two-point perspective

That’s all perspective is. One point, two points. The rest is feeling. If your rectangle feels wrong in one point perspective, chances are the lines converge too fast, too unnaturally.

(A comparison.)

When you are far from the ground like in A, the horizon is closer to the top of your view window. When you are close to the ground, the horizon is more near the middle of the view window. There are subtle point to be careful of…again, if you feel something is wrong, something is probably wrong.

(Reproduced so you read the text below and see the pic at the same time.)

In C, the vertical sides of 2 is perfectly parallel. That can only happen if you are viewing Side 2 straight on. However, you are not. That is why the correct version is A, where the sides of 2 are slightly slanted in toward each other as they go further away from you.

We see that same “slanting” in B and D. In B, if you are viewing a brick or a building head on, 2’s vertical slides are paralle. But in D, 2’s sides are slanted, that can not happen if you aren’t viewing a brick even from way above. If you are not far from it, 2’s sides will just be too short and show any length at all, save the slanting. D must be you looking at a house from way above, so far from it that the 2’s sides start to slant.

(Another comparison, this time in 2-point perspective)

The bottom case looks like you are far above the ground and looking down at this “square-like” shape on the ground. But it just doesn’t look like a square at all (or a rectangle). The root of the problem is the two vanishing points are two close together.

Now you’ve made it this far into the article, it will be too bad if you don’t go home with a car drawn in perspective. So what you are waiting for? Let’s draw one together!

Step1: Draw a brick with two vanishing points (not in the page, but you can feel them).

Step 2: Draw wheels. Here is the trick. If you pay close attention, a wheel like 3 is being squeezed along the axis you are looking at it. 3 is bigger in diameter than 1or 4 because it’s the closest to you, but is more “turned toward” you than 4 but less turned toward you than 1.

Step 3: Use critical lines to delineate the shape of a car. The red line delineats the bottom of the car. The blue line delineates the bonnet (covering the engine) and goes along the top face of the brick. The green line is at dead middle of the car if you look at it straight on (you place it by feeling it).

Step 4. Some minor details and viola! Carte instata (instant car in Italian, no?)

Happy drawing guys. Remember to practice…practice…practice.