How do I draw in perspective?

Turn on the perspective grid. Vectornation by Zaweba has a grid with one, two or three vanishing points, and its Depth grid (Shift+P) and Depth picker (Shift+V) place artwork onto the grid's planes so it shrinks and slants correctly towards the horizon. Text, images and symbols you put on the grid stay live, so you can still edit them.

Drawing perspective by hand means projecting every line back to a vanishing point. A perspective grid does that for you, so a shop front, a street, a box or a room comes out convincing without a page full of construction lines.

Choosing one, two or three points

One-point perspective has a single vanishing point straight ahead. It suits views looking down a corridor, a road or along a shelf, where the front faces are flat to you.

Two-point perspective has two vanishing points on the horizon, left and right. It is the usual choice for buildings and objects seen from a corner, with two sides receding.

Three-point perspective adds a third point above or below, for looking up at a tall building or down from a height. It is the most dramatic and the hardest to keep believable, so use it when the viewpoint really calls for it.

Setting up the grid

Switch on the perspective grid and choose the number of points. Set the horizon at the eye height of your viewer: low for a worm's view, high for a bird's view.

Use the Depth grid tool (Shift+P) to work with the grid itself. Draw flat artwork, such as a window, a sign or a label, and use the Depth picker (Shift+V) to place it onto a plane. It takes on the angle and foreshortening of that plane.

Because the placed artwork stays live, a sign with text on a perspective wall can still have its wording changed, an image can be swapped and a symbol updated.

Keeping a scene believable

Keep the horizon consistent. Every object in the scene shares one horizon. Mixing grids with different horizons is the quickest way to make a picture feel wrong.

Rough it out first. Block in large surfaces as simple shapes before adding detail. It is easy to correct a wall's position early and frustrating once windows and signs are placed on it.

Watch the edges of the picture. Objects far from the centre of view can look stretched, particularly in three-point. If something looks distorted, try moving the vanishing points further apart.

Other ways to suggest depth

Not every drawing needs true perspective. For technical drawings and infographics, Vectornation's View > Isometric and Dimetric (2:1) grids give a parallel projection with snapping, where lines do not converge. Object > Projection puts flat artwork onto a cube face in that style.

For solid-looking objects, the live 3D effects extrude, bevel and revolve flat shapes with lighting and cast shadows, which can be quicker than drawing a box in perspective by hand.

Vectornation by Zaweba is free software for Windows that works offline and needs no account.