Know your ups and downs and your right from your left.

To help get some basic perspective right, without a lot of complicated talk about vanishing points, draw two intersecting lines.

Start with your eye level line. Then draw a vertical line that intersects at a point straight in front of you. These two lines will help with getting things right.

You can see the right side of any object to the left of the vertical line, or see the left side of any object to the right. You don’t see the sides of an object directly in front of you.

Objects that are above the line of sight reveal the bottom, those below the line reveal their top.

This helps with getting people right in your scene. Here is how it would work on a sketch I recently did.

The group of people on the left were sitting at tables the same level as I was so their eye level was like mine, the group on the right was standing so they were a bit higher than the rest of us. You can see the top of the brickwork around the fountain, but underneath the umbrella – the bricks are lower than the eye level, the umbrella above it.

I may not always pencil in the lines, but am always aware of them. More on this in future Tuesday Tips.

Hope this is something you can use, I love to hear your thoughts, and questions. In the end, just have fun.