Point Perspective Drawing Lesson

If you want to start trying to draw things in perspective, get your pencil, ruler, paper and a good eraser ready. We’ll cover one point and two point perspective.

One Point Perspective Lesson

One point perspective is the easiest kind of perspective to work with because it has just one vanishing point.

To begin, draw a light, horizontal line across the entire length of a piece of paper. This is your horizon line. Now, draw a small point in the center of your horizon line. This is your vanishing point.

We’ll start with train tracks, since they are one of the most iconic images associated with one point perspective. On the bottom of the page, draw one rectangular slat of the track which is closest to where your feet would be, if you were standing in the photo looking down the tracks.

Now with your ruler, connect the outside of the track to the vanishing point with light pencil lines, on both the left and right sides. This should result in a triangle, with the first track as its base and the vanishing point as the top tip.

Now, you know the exact widths you need to make each of your subsequent tracks. They should line up perfectly with the vanishing lines you drew. When you’re finished drawing the tracks, erase your vanishing lines and vanishing point. You now have the illusion of depth and distance in your picture.

Two Point Perspective

Two point perspective is a bit more complicated than one point perspective. In two point perspective, our viewpoint is usually from the corner of something, like the corner of a building which sits at the intersection of two streets. Thus, each side of the building disappears into the vanishing point at the end of each street.

Start the same way as the one point perspective drawing, with a horizon line across the center of your paper. Instead of drawing train tracks, we’ll draw a pyramid, which is one of the easiest ways to exemplify two point perspective.

Choose two vanishing points near the end of your horizon line: one on the left and one on the right. The farther apart they are, the better.

Decide where the front corner of your pyramid will sit, somewhere near the bottom of your sheet. Draw a small point here, and then connect each side with its corresponding vanishing point with your ruler and pencil. Decide how far along each vanishing line the back corners of your pyramid will sit, and mark that point on the lines.

Draw a horizontal line at these points, connecting the two vanishing lines. Now connect each corner with its corresponding vanishing point on the horizon. The place where these two new vanishing points intersect is the far corner of your pyramid (the one you can’t see when standing in front of it). Join that back corner to the front corner with a straight line.

Now, draw a line exactly perpendicular to the horizon line from the center of your pyramid, up at high as you want the pyramid to be. Last, connect the top of this line to each corner of your pyramid. Erase all extraneous lines and you’re done!

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