How to practice two-point perspective drawing on iPad

Two-point perspective is the drawing skill that makes buildings, rooms and objects look solid instead of flat. It shows up in drawing foundations, architecture, interior design, industrial design and illustration classes, usually early, because everything else builds on it.

It's also very learnable. It's a system of rules, and once the rules click, practice is mostly repetition. This guide walks through the rules, a step-by-step box, the mistakes instructors see most often, and how to set up perspective practice pages on an iPad.

The three parts of two-point perspective

• The horizon line is the viewer's eye level. Anything above it, you see from below. Anything below it, you see from above. Raising or lowering the horizon line is the same as the viewer standing up or crouching down.
• Two vanishing points sit on the horizon line. All the horizontal edges of an object that run in one direction meet at one point; the edges running the other direction meet at the other.
• Vertical lines stay vertical. In two-point perspective, verticals don't converge. They stay straight up and down, parallel to each other.

Two-point perspective is what you use when you're looking at the corner of something: a building on a street corner, a box turned at an angle. If you're looking straight at the flat face of something, like down a hallway, that's one-point perspective instead.

Draw a box in two-point perspective

This is the exercise every perspective class starts with. Do it many times.

1. Draw the front vertical edge. This is the corner of the box nearest to you. Put it between the two vanishing points.
2. Connect the top of that edge to both vanishing points with light lines.
3. Connect the bottom of that edge to both vanishing points the same way. You now have two wedge shapes.
4. Draw two more verticals, one inside each wedge, to set the width and depth of the box.
5. If the box is below the horizon, connect the top of each back vertical to the opposite vanishing point. Where those two lines cross is the hidden back corner of the top face.
6. Darken the visible edges and leave the construction lines light.

Then move the box. Draw one floating above the horizon, so you see its underside. Draw one sitting right on the horizon, where the top and bottom almost disappear. Seeing how the same box changes with height is the point of the exercise.

From boxes to real things

Almost every manufactured object is a box or a group of boxes. Once boxes feel easy:

• Buildings: draw a tall box, then divide its faces into floors and windows. Every window's top and bottom edge runs to the vanishing point for that face.
• Furniture: a table is a flat box on four thin ones.
• Streets and city blocks: stack boxes of different heights along the same two vanishing points.
• Cylinders: draw a box first, then fit an ellipse into its top and bottom faces.

Common mistakes

• Vanishing points too close together. Objects look stretched and distorted, especially near the edges. Spread them wider apart, even beyond the edges of your drawing area.
• Verticals that lean. In two-point, they shouldn't. Check each one.
• Edges that miss the vanishing point. Every receding edge should land exactly on its vanishing point. A small miss looks wrong even if you can't say why.
• Horizon in the wrong place. If a box sits below eye level, you should see its top. If you see the top and the bottom at once, something is off.
• Construction lines too dark. Draw them light, so the final lines stand out.

Perspective paper in Scribba

Scribba's Perspective paper is one of its 39 paper types. It's set up for two-point perspective: a HORIZON line with guide rays coming from two vanishing points. The rays give you guides to follow while you learn, so your receding edges start out heading the right way.

You can change any page's paper from the page sidebar, so a sketchbook notebook for your drawing class can mix Perspective pages with blank, dot grid or isometric pages. Isometric drawing is a different system, with no vanishing points at all; see isometric paper on iPad for when to use which. Orientation and page size are chosen when you create the notebook, and a landscape page gives you more room to spread out vanishing points.

Tools that make perspective practice easier:

• The ruler. Add it from the + menu in the notebook's top bar and lay it along a guide ray to draw a clean receding edge. See using the ruler in iPad notes.
• Snapped lines. Hold the Apple Pencil still at the end of a stroke and it snaps straight. That's quick for verticals and short edges.
• Pencil, then fineliner. Draw construction lines with the pencil pen type in a light color, then go over the final edges with the fineliner in black.
• Whole-stroke eraser. Erase a whole construction line at once instead of rubbing it out bit by bit.
• Duplicate the page. In the page sidebar, duplicate a fresh Perspective page before you start, so you always have a clean one for the next exercise.

Tip: practice in short daily sets. Ten boxes at different heights take a few minutes, and repeating the exercise often does more than one long session the night before a critique.

Taking notes in a drawing class

Studio classes still have lectures and demos. Keep a ruled or dot grid page next to your practice pages for terms and instructor tips, like how far apart to place vanishing points for a given subject. If your instructor allows it, you can record a demo in Scribba and sketch along. Every stroke is linked to the moment in the recording, so tapping your sketch later replays what was being explained. Ask first, and see how to record a lecture on iPad.

For technical drawing in engineering classes, such as projections and dimensioned sketches, see engineering notes on iPad.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between one-point and two-point perspective?

One-point perspective has a single vanishing point and is used when you face an object or space straight on. Two-point has two vanishing points on the horizon and is used when you see an object from its corner.

Where should I put the horizon line?

At the viewer's eye level. A low horizon makes things look tall and imposing, a high one gives a view from above. Pick it first, because everything else depends on it.

Can I move the vanishing points on Scribba's Perspective paper?

The guide rays are printed on the template. For a different setup, draw your own horizon line and vanishing points on blank or dot grid paper with the ruler.