Cartoon is an art of illusion—flat lines on a flat sheet of paper look like something real, something full of depth. To reach this outcome, artists use special tricks. In this tutorial I'll testify you these tricks, giving you the key to cartoon three dimensional objects. And nosotros'll do this with the help of this cute tiger salamander, as pictured by Jared Davidson on stockvault.

Why Certain Drawings Look 3D

The salamander in this photo looks pretty three-dimensional, correct? Let'southward turn it into lines now.

Hm, something'south wrong here. The lines are definitely correct (I traced them, after all!), but the drawing itself looks pretty flat. Sure, it lacks shading, merely what if I told you that you can draw iii-dimensionally without shading?

I've added a couple more lines and… magic happened! Now it looks very much 3D, maybe even more than the photo!

Although yous don't run into these lines in a concluding cartoon, they touch on the shape of the design, pare folds, and fifty-fifty shading. They are the key to recognizing the 3D shape of something. Then the question is: where do they come from and how to imagine them properly?

When you follow these lines with annihilation you draw on the body, it volition look as if it was wrapped around it.

3D = 3 Sides

As yous call back from school, 3D solids take cantankerous-sections. Considering our salamander is 3D, information technology has cantankerous-sections as well. Then these lines are nothing less, goose egg more, than outlines of the body'due south cantankerous-sections. Here'due south the proof:

Disclaimer: no salamander has been hurt in the process of creating this tutorial!

A 3D object can be "cut" in three different ways, creating three cross-sections perpendicular to each other.

Each cross-section is 2D—which means it has two dimensions. Each one of these dimensions is shared with one of the other cross-sections. In other words, 2D + second + second = 3D!

So, a 3D object has three 2D cross-sections. These 3 cross-sections are basically three views of the object—hither the green one is a side view, the blue 1 is the front/back view, and the red i is the top/bottom view.

Therefore, a drawing looks 2D if you can merely meet one or two dimensions. To go far look 3D, you need to testify all three dimensions at the same fourth dimension.

To get in fifty-fifty simpler: an object looks 3D if y'all can meet at least ii of its sides at the same time. Here you tin see the pinnacle, the side, and the forepart of the salamander, and thus it looks 3D.

Just look, what'due south going on here?

When you expect at a 2D cross-section, its dimensions are perpendicular to each other—there's right angle between them. Only when the same cross-department is seen in a 3D view, the angle changes—the dimension lines stretch the outline of the cross-section.

Let's practice a quick recap. A single cross-section is piece of cake to imagine, merely it looks flat, because it's 2D. To brand an object look 3D, you need to prove at to the lowest degree two of its cross-sections. Merely when y'all depict ii or more than cantankerous-sections at once, their shape changes.

This change is not random. In fact, information technology is exactly what your encephalon analyzes to understand the view. So there are rules of this modify that your subconscious mind already knows—and now I'm going to teach your conscious self what they are.

The Rules of Perspective

Here are a couple of different views of the same salamander. I accept marked the outlines of all 3 cross-sections wherever they were visible. I've also marked the top, side, and front. Take a good expect at them. How does each view touch on the shape of the cross-sections?

In a 2d view, y'all accept ii dimensions at 100% of their length, and one invisible dimension at 0% of its length. If y'all apply one of the dimensions equally an centrality of rotation and rotate the object, the other visible dimension volition requite some of its length to the invisible one. If you lot go on rotating, one volition keep losing, and the other volition keep gaining, until finally the first one becomes invisible (0% length) and the other reaches its total length.

Just… don't these 3D views look a footling… flat? That's right—there's i more thing that we need to take into account here. There'south something called "cone of vision"—the farther you look, the wider your field of vision is.

Because of this, yous tin cover the whole globe with your manus if you lot identify information technology right in front of your eyes, just it stops working similar that when you move information technology "deeper" within the cone (farther from your eyes). This also leads to a visual alter of size—the further the object is, the smaller information technology looks (the less of your field of vision it covers).

Now lets turn these ii planes into two sides of a box by connecting them with the third dimension. Surprise—that third dimension is no longer perpendicular to the others!

So this is how our diagram should really look. The dimension that is the axis of rotation changes, in the end—the border that is closer to the viewer should be longer than the others.

It'due south important to recollect though that this effects is based on the distance between both sides of the object. If both sides are pretty shut to each other (relative to the viewer), this effect may exist negligible. On the other hand, some photographic camera lenses tin can exaggerate it.

And then, to draw a 3D view with two sides visible, you place these sides together…

… resize them accordingly (the more of ane you lot want to evidence, the less of the other should be visible)…

… and make the edges that are farther from the viewer than the others shorter.

Here'southward how it looks in do:

Just what virtually the third side? It'south impossible to stick it to both edges of the other sides at the same time! Or is it?

The solution is pretty straightforward: finish trying to proceed all the angles right at all costs. Slant ane side, then the other, and then make the third one parallel to them. Piece of cake!

And, of course, let's not forget about making the more distant edges shorter. This isn't ever necessary, but it's adept to know how to do it:

Ok, so you lot need to slant the sides, simply how much? This is where I could pull out a whole fix of diagrams explaining this mathematically, just the truth is, I don't practice math when drawing. My formula is: the more y'all slant one side, the less y'all camber the other. Merely wait at our salamanders again and check it for yourself!

You can also think of information technology this way: if i side has angles shut to ninety degrees, the other must have angles far from 90 degrees

Simply if yous want to depict creatures like our salamander, their cantankerous-sections don't really resemble a square. They're closer to a circle. Just like a square turns into a rectangle when a 2d side is visible, a circumvolve turns into an ellipse. Only that's not the terminate of it. When the third side is visible and the rectangle gets slanted, the ellipse must get slanted too!

How to camber an ellipse? Simply rotate it!

This diagram can assistance you memorize it:

Multiple Objects

So far we've only talked near drawing a single object. If you desire to depict two or more than objects in the same scene, in that location's ordinarily some kind of relation betwixt them. To bear witness this relation properly, decide which dimension is the axis of rotation—this dimension will stay parallel in both objects. Once you lot practice it, you lot can practise whatsoever you want with the other two dimensions, equally long as you follow the rules explained earlier.

In other words, if something is parallel in one view, then it must stay parallel in the other. This is the easiest fashion to check if you got your perspective right!

There'due south another blazon of relation, called symmetry. In 2D the axis of symmetry is a line, in 3D—information technology'due south a aeroplane. Just it works just the aforementioned!

Yous don't need to depict the plane of symmetry, but you should be able to imagine it right between two symmetrical objects.

Symmetry will assist you with hard drawing, like a caput with open jaws. Here figure 1 shows the angle of jaws, effigy ii shows the centrality of symmetry, and figure 3 combines both.

3D Drawing in Practice

Exercise i

To empathise it all better, you can effort to find the cross-sections on your ain at present, drawing them on photos of real objects. Commencement, "cut" the object horizontally and vertically into halves.

At present, notice a pair of symmetrical elements in the object, and connect them with a line. This will be the third dimension.

Once yous take this management, you lot can draw information technology all over the object.

Continue cartoon these lines, going all around the object—connecting the horizontal and vertical cross-sections. The shape of these lines should exist based on the shape of the third cross-section.

Once you're done with the large shapes, yous tin practice on the smaller ones.

You lot'll soon observe that these lines are all y'all need to describe a 3D shape!

Exercise 2

You tin exercise a similar exercise with more complex shapes, to better sympathise how to draw them yourself. Commencement, connect respective points from both sides of the torso—everything that would be symmetrical in top view.

Mark the line of symmetry crossing the whole body.

Finally, try to find all the simple shapes that build the final form of the body.

Now you take a perfect recipe for cartoon a similar animal on your ain, in 3D!

My Procedure

I gave you all the information you lot need to draw 3D objects from imagination. Now I'm going to prove you my own thinking process behind drawing a 3D animate being from scratch, using the knowledge I presented to you today.

I usually start drawing an brute head with a circle. This circumvolve should contain the cranium and the cheeks.

Next, I depict the middle line. Information technology's entirely my decision where I desire to place it and at what angle. But once I brand this decision, everything else must exist adjusted to this offset line.

I draw the middle line between the eyes, to visually divide the sphere into two sides. Can you notice the shape of a rotated ellipse?

I add together another sphere in the front end. This will be the muzzle. I discover the proper location for it by drawing the nose at the same fourth dimension. The imaginary plane of symmetry should cut the nose in half. As well, notice how the nose line stays parallel to the eye line.

I draw the the surface area of the center that includes all the bones creating the heart socket. Such big area is easy to draw properly, and it will help me add the eyes later. Keep in mind that these aren't circles stuck to the front of the confront—they follow the curve of the main sphere, and they're 3D themselves.

The mouth is so like shooting fish in a barrel to draw at this point! I but have to follow the direction dictated by the eye line and the nose line.

I draw the cheek and connect information technology with the chin creating the jawline. If I wanted to draw open up jaws, I would draw both cheeks—the line between them would be the axis of rotation of the jaw.

When drawing the ears, I make sure to describe their base on the same level, a line parallel to the center line, only the tips of the ears don't have to follow this rule so strictly—it's because usually they're very mobile and can rotate in various axes.

At this point, adding the details is as easy every bit in a second cartoon.

That's All!

It'due south the end of this tutorial, but the beginning of your learning! You should now exist set to follow my How to Draw a Big True cat Head tutorial, as well as my other animal tutorials. To practice perspective, I recommend animals with simple shaped bodies, like:

  • Birds
  • Lizards
  • Bears

You lot should also find it much easier to empathize my tutorial almost digital shading! And if you want even more than exercises focused directly on the topic of perspective, you'll like my older tutorial, full of both theory and do.