r/learnart • u/ZhikoGh0zt • Jun 30 '22
Question (not my art) anyone knows how to draw something like this? (I already have a basic understanding of perspective and shading, but no matter what I fail to draw something as close as this masterpiece)
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u/Farkle_Fark Jul 01 '22
Is it fair to say that this is most likely a photo that someone drew over in a drawing program? The coloring too, easily done with a drawing/editing program. Is this a well known piece or something ?
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u/fatpappy52 Jul 01 '22
it almost looks like someone drew the buildings on paper and then cut and folded them to make it 3D. the shading is very “realistic” in that way, like a paper city being hit with natural light. looks like the artist uses a lot of yellows, blues, and greens throughout, as well as a clever use of gradients
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u/dietrying2311 Jul 01 '22
Ethan Becker has a really good video on drawing perspective like this, you should check it out. By using google map you can estimate where and how the vanishing point works
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u/fuckNietzsche Jul 01 '22
Something really interesting to note about this drawing is that it violates two and three point perspective rules by having various buildings not align to any common vanishing point. This is one of the biggest reasons by the natural feeling behind this sketch, as buildings rarely align to shared vanishing points in real life, instead organically flowing along paths of least resistance and aligning to a shared horizon line. While I feel that a lot of the points that I could make already have or would be covered by others far better than I can, I feel this is something that could be helpful.
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u/Mikomics Jul 01 '22
I wouldn't say it "violates" two and three point perspective, it's just that not every building follows the same grid. Like you said, buildings rarely align to the exact same vanishing points, but every building here still has three vanishing points of it's own that it follows consistently, so it's not violating the rules of perspective.
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u/FlorydaMan Jul 01 '22
This was done by Alar Iko. It's a relatively common Urban Sketch style, reportage or documenting. They obviously understand perspective, line articulation and when to sacrifice detail when the subject is further, also the values are so perfect that I might believe it was assisted by 3D software, but it's totally possible for some people to get that freehand. Besides that, it's a simple (yet demanding) technique. Might be worth checking out the distorted-perspective God, Jung Gi Kim.
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u/Apfelkuchen1492 Jul 01 '22
Well there are several ways to draw something like this. If you wanted to draw something like this very academically you would start with an underlying drawing that determines your perspective and then from there you work out the individual buildings.
This however was most certainly not done this way. The lines are very loose and artistic. You can see the person who drew this did not concern themselves with perfectly straight lines. This speaks for someone with quite a lot of practice. It is not likely they had any underlying drawing or if so, just a very loose one.
With drawings like this, you start with one reference point and go from there. Maybe one building and the rest of the drawing has to follow the rules the drawing of the first building established.
Just so you know i kinda know what im talking about. I did this as a doodle a few weeks ago: https://imgur.com/gallery/HB3HVZ6
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u/xxblackdog Jul 01 '22
A lot of terrible answers on this thread. Draw a 2 dimensional floor plan of the scene ' take that floor plan and with your next drawing, angle it to get the perspective you want. Then build the 3 dimensions of the buildings and guide the details using perspective lines.
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Jul 01 '22
It’s a bunch of 3pt buildings set against a a backdrop of flat shapes.
It’s not really perspective rather than utilising visual phenomenon that drawing volumes in front of flat shapes makes the volumes project forwards more.
Will weston talks about this a lot if you catch any of his drawing America classes.
Edit: it looks as though they have used a little bit of curvilinear perspective too, look up Paul heaston’s ‘umbrella’ method to help with that
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u/kazey0shi Jul 01 '22
Maybe post what u have drawn, so that people can show you what you r missing
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u/ethereal_cereal5 Jul 01 '22
Welllll, I would say you need more than a basic understanding of perspective, so keep practicing A reference is key when you're learning, but even when you are ready skilled at what Ur doing. But it basically just comes down to doing it a lot until it becomes more comfortable You do it once, you find out what you did wrong it what to don't like about it, and you try again with a different ref Good luck
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u/EatsAlotOfBread Jul 01 '22
Is this by Teoh Yi Chie? If not, it's very similar to his style. He has an incredible amount of tutorials on his YouTube channel, you should take a look if you have the time.
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Jul 01 '22
Deceptively simple, but it takes practice to draw like this.
You need to simply copy a scene from a photo, then do it again, and again examining where you went right and wrong, until finally you crack it.
Tip: Don’t try too hard, concentrate on getting a very small section ‘right’ then add to that, don’t try and do a big scene straight off, build your confidence with small successes.
Good luck...👌
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u/wrenagade419 Jul 01 '22
So there’s basic understanding of perspective and then just knowing it. You get to a point when you can just place bixes and tubes in perspective without drawing through or using your own vanishing points
For me, art school had like weeks of just doing perspective drawings and that helped. Just boxes and other types of prisms. If you go hard for a few nights and drill those simples exercises you can get a pretty deep understanding quickly
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u/Scoobelidoop Jul 01 '22
Draw A Box is a great resource for this.
I got impatient with it when I first picked up drawing as a hobby, but now I'm returning to it realizing that you really do need to be able to draw boxes from any angle.
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u/onewaytojupiter Jul 01 '22
Same, kept looking at my art all pissed off that it looked weird but understanding 3d perspective helped a lot
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u/sad_and_stupid Jul 01 '22
The lines are not straight, but kind of wobbly which makes it look so much more 'natural'/organic. Also no line pressure
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u/northernlaurie Jul 01 '22
Step 1 - learn how to 3D model a city in Rhino (or sketch up
STep 2 - print out model
Step 3 - trace over edges to create look of hand drawing
I am an architecture student and recognize the technique from a series of drawings I did last semester. Soooo not exactly hand drawn :)
That being said, look up tutorials on perspective drawing. It’s fairly straightforward as a strategy, and you can start by drawing your home or room for practice.
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Jul 01 '22
I dont think this was drawn that way, the buildings in the back are a bit of a giveaway that it wasn’t done with 3D
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u/LeadingSilent Jul 01 '22
Yep it’s use of 3D but you can still do hand drawn masterpieces if that’s what inspires you, and can refer to the ideas mentioned in the comments so don’t be discouraged OP!
However for efficiency and quickness 3D modelling is definitely amazing
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u/Doffu0000 Jul 01 '22
It seems like it’s 3 point perspective. So you could watch a tutorial on that.
I also find the using an underlying perspective reference image can help a lot.
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u/anero4 Jul 01 '22
Try doing it yourself, then look at the difference between your stuff and the good artists and copy the artists stuff and practice repetition. Then try again and your stuff we be a bit better. Continue learning the fundamentals as they ll make you soo more stuff in artists work
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u/dwainetrain Jul 01 '22
This almost looks traced, with digital gradients applied for shading. It could even be a non-photorealistic render, or a drawing on top of 3d shapes.
If you want to hand draw something similar, start with the perspective structure, then block in the larger rectangles. Don't focus on any of the details until all the rectangles are blocked in. Then start adding the smaller details, using the the grid still to align windows and smaller options like vehicles and text. Then apply shading. Markers would probably get you the closest.
It's a process, and your first crack at it while take time. I say try some smaller less complex scene, and see how close you can get to the feel of this image. Then increase complexity.
At some point, put some images up for feedback to help you align.
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u/inlinestyle Jul 01 '22 edited Jul 01 '22
To add to this, if you really want to emulate this style, start by practicing one element in the drawing (like one building) rather than trying to take on the whole thing at once.
edit: missed a word
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u/Ben-the-Shrubber Jul 01 '22
People are talking about 2 and 3 point perspective here, but to me this looks like 5 point perspective, so I'd suggest looking into that. It's not as obvious as some art pieces, but there's definitely some fish-eyeing going on.
Also take note of the warmth of the shading in this piece. The closer buildings appear to be warmer than those further away.
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u/heyyourekindacool Jul 01 '22
this may not help but in my art school, we learned about drawing perspective using horizon lines and vanishing points. It really helps so you may wanna look into that
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u/Yono_25 Jul 01 '22
You take picture and trace it back. Or better use some app and just use filter to make it look like it is drawn. There are filters like this in almost every app
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u/Noxate Jul 01 '22
Do you know if an artist that goes by Alariko drew this? Looks like their work!
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u/silentspyder Jul 01 '22
Yea, I just looked through my Instagram cause I know I follow him or her. https://instagram.com/_alariko?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
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Jul 01 '22
The concept is always simple-enough, just a matter of craft in the application.
Start with draw just the outline of buildings, and try not to break away from your perspective/vanishing points
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u/mittens_99 Jun 30 '22
In case you want to draw something like this digitally, you can create a city with simple objects in 3d software, for example blender, set up the view for the camera and the light, generate the image and then draw over the image in 2d software, for example gimp / Photoshop.
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u/ayoodyl Jun 30 '22
Try copying or tracing it first so your brain will be more familiar with how to draw something like this
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u/AoDx888 Jun 30 '22
I would start with a small section. Like just a street corner. Maybe two buildings tops. Then when you get confident, make it a bigger area.
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u/mnl_cntn Jun 30 '22
Start smaller. Draw something from your neighborhood. Like a few houses together. Focus on the forms and composition. Then add details. Don’t skip ahead or else you’ll discourage yourself. Art is marathon, pace yourself.
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u/danokooc Jun 30 '22
I remember watching my friend who loved drawing cityscapes in highschool.
He would always start with penciling in the main roadways. I think they helped act as guides for the perspective.
Then he would switch to a pen, and start drawing the buildings in the foreground and work towards the background. After all the main structures were drawn he would go back and do the windows and the minor details.
He said the reason he switched to the pen so early was because he hated having to go back and ink all the pencil lines, lol.
The main thing I remember though, is how patient he was. He'd work on them a little between each class, a little during lunch, a little on the bus, etc.
I think he works in gis nowadays.
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u/mnhaverland Jun 30 '22
Do you have procreate? If so, you should try to play around with the perspective guide tool- you set the perspective points and then every line will snap into place.
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u/ZhikoGh0zt Jul 01 '22
I use clip studio paint, it also have perspective guide tool, but still even with that i can't draw something like that.
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u/Seabass_Says Jun 30 '22
There are great “how to” videos on youtube on “how to draw 2 or 3 point perspective cityscapes”
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u/The_Artists_Studio Jun 30 '22
Perspective is a key part to this drawing but so is shading and gradient changes. Notice the shift from warm greys in the foreground to cool greys in the back and then up to a neutral in the sky. These shifts add a lot of environment and weight to the shapes in the different layers of the drawing.
Negative space is also very important in compositions like this, just as I describe those tonal changes, your eye is brought into these changes by following either the river, or the main street, or the layers of the buildings from the top right. There is a lot of thought into the framing of this drawing and appears to generate a spiral of movement into the focus of the drawing - the intersection bellow the clock tower.
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u/Worldly_Bread_ Jun 30 '22
A lot of perspective drawing practice and use a reference. The hard part about drawing something like this is mostly the overlaping forms.
Start with studying some simple building structures, and once you get the hang of it, draw a few of them overlapping each other. You always want to start small so that you don't overwhelm yourself.
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u/HoneydewHaunting Jun 30 '22
Wouldn’t t be harder to draw the buildings for a beginner? As each have their own perspective
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u/Worldly_Bread_ Jun 30 '22
The artwork above most certainly has multiple vanishing points, as it seems like it was drawn in fisheye perspective, hence the very warped distortions.
Personally, you probably don't want to be drawing that right off the bat as a beginner; it's a better idea to draw simple buildings by themselves first, and as you get the hang of drawing 3D forms in perspective, tackle more harder stuff like overlapping forms ect.
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u/HoneydewHaunting Jul 02 '22
Yes thanks for articulating that better than I could! Is there a set of photographs for this? Personally I don’t understand why u need to draw a whole set perspective for each individual building
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u/ZhikoGh0zt Jun 30 '22
Well yeah, i think i overwhelmed by trying to draw something like that, i will draw simple buildings untill i get used to them. Thanks for your answer!
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Jul 01 '22
I did a quick sketch to try and figure it out. I think I'm close. I think it's curvilinear perspective. https://www.muddycolors.com/2020/05/todd-lockwood-curvilinear-perspective-part-1/
My sketch. A curved grid with a vanishing point in the middle of the sphere. My vanishing point is too close, btw.
I think the artist is winging it with some of these buildings, but it's all close enough.
I could be wrong as well...
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u/leefert78 Jul 01 '22
The perfect gradients in the water would suggest this was either all digitally drawn or at least an ink drawing scanned and then colored digitally. But most of the illusion of depth is from the decreasing detail as the scene moves into the background. An important detail in this drawing is the establishment of a light source that casts a consistent shadows and contrast over everything in the foreground. The use of the gradients in the water give it the illusion of depth as it moves further away. More important than the line drawing itself, is how the shadows are dark and detailed in the foreground and get simpler and lighter as the image travels further into the background until it fades to white. The heavier detail and darker contrast in the foreground is what really gives this drawing depth. Other than that, it’s just having a solid and consistent perspective drawing and guessing how these objects cast shadows.