You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less (41 page)

In this lesson I will explore one-point perspective, which is a drawing technique involving alignment of all objects to a single focal point in a picture. This technique is also referred to as a vanishing point. Don’t confuse this with two-point-perspective drawing, even though the principle is similar. In two-point perspective you use two vanishing points to position your drawings with specific alignment to create depth.

I’m not going to detail how to draw the furniture in this introduction. Honestly, we could spend another entire book of lessons just focusing on drawing furniture, windows, drapes, stairs, doorways, and other interior design details. For this introduction, let’s just focus on drawing a really great three-dimensional space that you can fill with your imagination.

1. Let’s begin this lesson by drawing the back wall of a room. Draw two horizontal lines lining up with the top of your sketchbook page and two vertical lines lining up with the side of your sketchbook page. Keep your vertical lines straight up and down and your horizontal lines straight across. This is very important.

2. Draw a guide dot in the center of the back wall.

 

 

 

3. Lightly sketch a guide line diagonally through the corners of your room, directly through the center guide dot. I used the edge of a scratch piece of paper as a straight edge, but feel free to use a ruler.

4. Lightly sketch another guide line diagonally through the opposite corners of your room, directly through the center guide dot.

5. Leaving the center guide dot, erase your extra lines.

6. Lightly sketch in the position of the door. Notice how we are using the drawing concept size. The near edge of the door is drawn larger to create the illusion that it is closer to your eye. Draw the floor, walls, and ceiling, always keeping in mind how size affects depth.

7. Using the center guide dot as your reference point, sketch a guide line from the top of the near edge of the door all the way to the center vanishing point. This center guide dot will be the focal point of nearly every line in this drawing.

8. Draw a window on the opposite wall by blocking in the position with two vertical lines. Remember to draw the near edge larger.

9. Once again, referring to your center guide dot, draw the top and bottom edges of the window. Pretty cool, eh?

10. Horizontal and vertical lines are used to illustrate thickness in one-point perspective drawings. Draw horizontal thickness lines for the doors, windows, and stairs.

11. Now draw a vertical line to define the thickness of the window. Is the window in a three-foot-thick stone castle wall or a much thinner brick or wooden wall?

12. This step is a very important part of this lesson. Using the center guide dot as your reference point, lightly sketch in the top and bottom of the window. Voilà! You have created a window in one-point perspective ! Now let’s work on the stairs.