Many good artists struggle with perspective

Do you avoid drawing interior spaces or city scapes?

Is Urban Sketching an uncomfortable exercise for you?

Have you ever found a research photo with a perfect environment but the camera angle is wrong for your composition and you had trouble translating it to your vision?

Have you done drawings that start out believable but somehow the perspective goes astray?

Are you unsure when you try to create the scene for your illustrations even though you are good at observational drawing?

I can help

I learned perspective on the job when I became an architectural illustrator in 1984. Professional perspectivists taught me real world perspective techniques in a real world environment.

I studied it extensively and collected many fine books on the subject, working my way through the assignments in order to understand.

I discovered that there are many techniques that aren’t necessary on a daily basis.

In 2011 I started teaching perspective at the Animation Guild (local 839). Then at LAAFA, CAL ARTS, Santa Monica College, and CGMA.

I teach with two guiding thoughts:
1. Keep it simple and make it understandable as well as entertaining.
2. Teach what real world working artists need, not every arcane difficult technique there is.

Many students have told me that the way I teach makes perspective understandable and easy to use while other perspective classes had left them confused and unsure.

That’s because my 35+ years of experience drawing buildings, interiors and whole cities gives me a good overview of the concepts and techniques I teach.

Then the pandemic came along!

I had to learn how to teach online using Zoom and other programs that make this possible.

Here’s the BIG SURPRISE!  I have gotten great results teaching perspective online. That is what has led me to creating these video lessons with multi-page pdf instructions, along with free YouTube videos.

My goal is to help other artists use perspective effectively and improve their careers.

Excellent class! I would love to see more classes like this, traditional, as it’s literally becoming a lost art. This computer generation is totally losing sight of these skills which Walt Disney and the Nine Old Men were advocates of, spent their lifetime and legacy teaching.

I’d love to see Jon teach another class in watercolor, for landscape backgrounds.

Cyndy B.

Keep it simple!

Art History tells us that perspective drawing comes from the Renaissance. It has continued to evolve and improve thanks to the contributions of many brilliant artists and mathematicians since then.

There are many fine books on the subject that have literally hundreds of techniques. It becomes mind boggling. And for 90% of the drawings we do those complicated methods are not required. Advanced techniques can be very time consuming and complicated.

In these digital times we will use a 3D program to build accurate models and select or animate shifting views at will. Building those models takes time and a different set of skills. It becomes complicated fast. And even with computer modeling there can be problematic visual breakdowns.

Drawing in perspective is about problem solving. Visual problem solving. In my experience, I’ve found that looking at a problem in the simplest way possible will allow you to find the solution to perspective problems.

Animators, Game Designers, Concept Artist, Storyboard Artists, and Illustrators need a different set of skills to produce images that convey character and depth quickly and convincingly. That ability calls for the use of good perspective. And good perspective doesn’t need to be overly complicated.