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How to draw background using perspective

How to draw background using perspective.  Here is a short tutorial on environmental concept sketch using one point perspective. Like I said before that I am going to do more environmental speed paintings (quick color sketches). Environmental involving perspective is probably one of the area I want to really be good at since I have not done a lot of them.


So far we have the following tutorials: Draw and paint Environmental concept Sand Valley, Drawing and painting environmental concept Magma Fall, Draw and paint landscape mountain rock, and Environmental concept tutorial Ice-Scape.  All the above are environmental concept sketches and paintings.  You can pick any video tutorials you like to see.

This one is a city at night study using one point perspective, it took me about an hour and a half painting and probably about a few more hours ref research and thinking. Like I usually do, I am focusing on the big shape first and foremost and line them up with perspective grid I drew up. After I got all the big shapes or elements in place, then I begin to work on rough detail to identify what kind of objects they are such as buildings etc. Here is the city at night quick color sketch.

One-Point Perspective.
One vanishing point is typically used for roads, railway tracks, hallways, or buildings viewed so that the front is directly facing the viewer. Any objects that are made up of lines either directly parallel with the viewer's line of sight or directly perpendicular (the railroad slats) can be represented with one-point perspective.

One-point perspective exists when the painting plate (also known as the picture plane) is parallel to two axes of a rectilinear (or Cartesian) scene — a scene which is composed entirely of linear elements that intersect only at right angles. If one axis is parallel with the picture plane, then all elements are either parallel to the painting plate (either horizontally or vertically) or perpendicular to it. All elements that are parallel to the painting plate are drawn as parallel lines. All elements that are perpendicular to the painting plate converge at a single point (a vanishing point) on the horizon.

Here is a sample of the one point perspective grid I used.

Here are step by step City environmental study tutorial:
Below as you will see, I move the horizontal line to the higher position, very close to the top boarder. As a result, the perspective will create a bird eye view camera angle image (looking from above). Then I placed the vanishing point is on the top right corner area instead of closer to the middle because it creates more interesting composition to the overall piece.

drawing city in perspective tutorial

Here is the final speed painting image
drawing city in perspective tutorial
For bigger image here: City night environment tutorial

Enjoy the tutorial! =)

More full length video tutorials

Environmental Concept Sketch Tutorial
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Comments

Luca said…
cool design brother, at first glance at the thumbnail I thought it was a reference photo! :D

thanks for the valuable information. keep inspiring.

Luca
pokepetter said…
This one is great. Way better than the landscape.

Painting a city from mind is simply a process of drawing rectangular prisms and applying architectural design. And by looking at architecture through history, the amount of ideas for buildings will explode.

One thing i notice in this picture however, is that the far away buildings to the left looks like they're lower than the ones in the mid- and foreground. The reason for that might be that the buildings are so wide compared to the height. Some lines to indicate roads could help geound the buildings more. It might be correct according to your reference but I haven't seen that so what do I know.

You nailed the mood and lighting on this one bro. Keep it up!
Josh said…
Hi, I'm working on a landscape project with a japanese theme. I was wondering if you could give me some pointers on it? I don't know if it matters, but I am a buyer of your videos.

Any help would be great!!
idrawgirls said…
@Luca Thanks bro! Hope this tutorial helps somehow. :)
@pokepetter Thanks bro...I look at a lot of ref for this one and scribble...try to make it within two hours before my motivation runs out. Bad habit for me when I do enviroment, it doesn't keep my interested for long, maybe I should try harder to find the beauty in it. But I am trying to do more of them so I can be faster and meaner!
Teague> Thanks for the support, I hope those tutorials help you out somehow...they do for others. As for pointers, I am not myself a big believer in critiquing work, I believe everyone knows what is initially wrong with their works...and if they don't, they aren't there yet. Practice practice and practice will get everyone there. What I would say though... For landscape there are 3 important element you should solely focus on primary 1) Correct Perspective 2) Interesting composition 3) Values (creating depth and forms). Just only if you nail these three major things right, you piece will be phenomenon. Once you have that down, you can then focus on design, color, ect. But solve art problem step by step and one at the time. Don't cluster them all together.

peace!
rory.hinks said…
Another gem from idrawgirls!
Just the sort of thing i needed, the lights are so effective in this.

Keep doing what you do man.
peace&love