Entering Space - An Introduction to Perspective in Procreate

1. Introduction: Welcome to learn perspective in Procreate mini class series. In each mini class, we are going to discuss the type of perspective and then create a cute illustration together so that you practice the newly gained knowledge right away. In this first mini class, we are going to explore the most basic type of perspective, the linear perspective. Throughout this class, I'm going to teach you how to create stunning and welcoming scenes which invite a viewer to the image. You will learn how to place a horizon line, how to define the position of the viewer of your illustration, how to place and size elements, and how to use color in order to create depth in your illustration. Hello, my name is Alexandra aka the art The Artmother. I'm an artist, illustrator or an educator and my superpower is to make complicated topics easy for beginners. There's many classes that are designed to be digestible, easy to follow, and will ensure learning by doing. No prior knowledge is required. You will need an iPad and Procreate and some working knowledge of the application. But the class can be followed along in any software and even traditionally. The class comes with five worksheets, a brush pack and some color palettes to ensure your success. So this class is perfect for any skill level, but it's mostly aimed at students who are beginners, who are not yet incorporating perspective in their art or are not confident enough when it comes to perspective or don't really understand the whys. Adding space to your art might be intimidating. But in this class, we are going to go step-by-step and dismiss all your fears. As illustrations tell us stories and stories happen in space, it is crucial to at some point, add perspective to your art. Linear perspective is the first step to be able to create stunning and this welcoming scenes where the viewer can be part of your illustration. Learning these theories and getting some experience in them will make your workflow more confident and your artworks more professional. The skills you will get from this class will remain with you in the future and will give you an opportunity to grow as an artist. So are you ready to enter space? If yes, let's get started. 2. The Project and Resources: Welcome, I'm so glad to have you in the class. In this video, I would love to talk to you about the resources, how you can download them, and what your project will be. So first, to access the resources you will need to open Skillshare in a browser and hold your iPad horizonally. Below the video, you can see the projects and resources tab right here and on the right you can find a list of resources. You can click the see more to see all of them. Click and download each of them. They will automatically import into Procreate when you open them after the download is finished. You can see there are five worksheets. Four of them will be a great help and reference in the future. You will learn about what is perspective, the horizon line, linear perspective, and colors. Then the fifth is the project. It is the illustration file itself with everything you will need to complete a project. This is how will it look like. So here are the worksheets and after the theoretical videos, we will dive right into creating. We will create this cute illustration right here. You will only need to keep a few things while creating your project. We are going to discuss that later in the videos or you can read about these things in the project description. I will show you how to upload your project when we are done with it. If you have all the resources and you've got the idea what we are going to do, let's move to the next video where we're going to start with a theory. So see you there. 3. Perspective: Let's get started. Now that you have downloaded older resources, let's open the first worksheet. In this video, we are going to talk about what is perspective. What is perspective? Perspective refers to the representation of the free dimensional world and space on the two-dimensional surface of a picture, of an iPad, on a Canvas, on a paper. Anything that you are creating on. There are several tools by which you can create illusion of space. One is obviously shading. If you want to make a sphere from a circle, you shade it and then you get a form and you have now depth in your image. Now, we are not going to talk about this kind of a dimension. When we talk about perspective, we actually talk about the placement, size, and orientation of objects. Perspective uses a horizon line and vanishing points to create space. In this class, we are going to talk about mostly the horizon line, and the placement, and size of the objects. Vanishing points are the points of disappearance, which help us with the orientation of objects and lines. There are several types of perspectives. One is when there is only a horizon line and that is the perspective that I call linear perspective, and this is which we are going to explore in this class. This type of perspective works in stylized scenes where there are no definite free dimensional objects like buildings, but it is rather plain landscape and silhouette. Then there are perspectives with one or two vanishing points, which are points of disappearance, as I already mentioned, they are on the horizon line, and there's different quantities, so there is one-point perspective, two-point perspective, and three-point perspective, and they will be discussed incoming classes. Back to the horizon line a linear perspective. Let's talk about it in the next video. 4. The Horizon Line: Open the next worksheet. This is what we are going to talk about the horizon line. The horizon line is basically the line between the sky and the land. With the placement of the horizon line, you can influence the angle the viewer is looking at your illustration. Take a look on these three cases. In the first, the horizon line is at the top third of the image. This makes the viewer look at the picture as from above. Now when we place the horizon line to the center, the mountains get closer. But I am still at a distance. In the third case, when I place the horizon line in the bottom third of the image, now everything gets closer, and I am part of the scene now. Now look at the three cases at the same time. Everything got bigger when I got closer to them; the mountains, the trees, the road, and now we arrive to the golden rule of perspective. Things that are closer are bigger than things that are further away. Just take a look in my hand. It is closer, it looks bigger. Now it's further away, it looks smaller. We explored what is perspective, its types and tools to create space, how we can affect a viewer's point of view and arrive to the golden rule. Now let's explore it in more detail in the next video. 5. Linear Perspective: Now let's open the third worksheet. Here, we arrive to the linear perspective. As we already discovered, the golden rule of perspective is that things that are closer look bigger than things further away. Take a look at this first drawing. As we also already stated, the horizon line is the line between the sky and the land. But it is actually any line that is dividing the land from the space above it. It can mean the floor from the walls, or as in this case, the desk from the wall. Here this line represents the edge of the desk. We also already mentioned vanishing points. In linear perspective, we are not having any vanishing point, but it only works if this thing we're creating is not containing any 3D objects or realistic elements. It works only in stylized scenes, small simple objects or silhouettes. If you observe this drawing, you can also notice that objects that are closer are not just bigger, but are placed lower to a bigger distance from the horizon line. On the other hand, objects that are further are drawn smaller and closer to the horizon line. When you have, for example, this sandwich here and a mug, the sandwich is drawn lower and in a bigger distance from the horizon line and it creates the illusion that it is in front of the mug. This is really important when we draw still lifes, to observe where the lines start and where the objects start. Now let's take a look on the other image. The same applies here. But now focus on the values. Colors in the foreground are usually darker. If it would be colorful, the colors would be warmer and more saturated, and they get brighter, cooler, and paler in the distance. This is how we can create the illusion of depth with colors. For example, take a look on these watercolors images that I found on Google. So even in this simple landscape that actually contains only the silhouettes of the trees, you can create the illusion of depth with getting colder and paler colors at the background. Can you see this image? It applies here as well. The colors get colder at the background and warmer in the foreground. Here as well. It is really typical. In this video, we learned about the horizon line placement, size, and values of objects that help us to create the illusion of space on a two-dimensional surface. Let's explore colors in more depth in the next video. 6. The Color Palette: Let's open the forts, and we are at the Color Palette. In this video, we are going to talk about how to choose the right colors for creating depth in a scene. As we already discussed, colors in the foreground are darker, warmer and more saturated than colors further, which are brighter, cooler and paler. Let's see what this means. If we take a look on a spectrum of a hue, I will just choose this one. It's ranges from black to white. This is called value. Now you need to choose the right values in your scene in order to create depth just as you have seen on the image in our previous worksheet. I hope you know which colors are warm and cool. It is a bit complex topic in color theory, but in short, this is the color wheel and you can draw a line approximately here. These colors are cool and these colors are warm. Also colors that have more red in them are warmer and colors that have more blue in them are cooler. For example, an orangey-yellow is going to be warmer than a greenish-yellow. Let's say about a purple, a bluish purple is going to be cooler than a redder magenta, or that is a bit reddish. It is good to choose cooler colors for the background and warmer for the foreground. But do not over think this, a saturation and brightness also affect colors. In the foreground we have more saturated colors. This area is approximately where it is really saturated and the background is more paler, so less saturated. This is going to be this area where it gets a bit grayish and they are also brighter. This area and in the foreground darker, so this area. In the scene we are going to create together, we are going to use five colors. Let's just take a look on this Color Palette. We are going to use two colors for the background, two colors for the center, and one color for the front. I have created a value range down here and a Value Check layer. If you open up the layers, you will have a Value Check layer. Now I am going to turn it on, and now you can see that these colors that I have chosen, have the same values. The colors for the background, colors for the center and color for the front. These need to match. You can see that I already created two Color Palettes for you and you can freely use them, or you can create your own. I created one more warmer and girlish palate and a bluish palette, but obviously you can create your own. We are going to use this value palette for checking our values and we are going to now create our own color palette. Let's do it together now. Let's turn the Value Check layer on again. You can see that the values of color palettes are almost identical with the same value range and this is what we are aiming for. But first, just choose the colors that you like, keep in mind approximately the brightness and the saturation thing, then we are going to adjust the values. So that you understand it a bit better, let's just take a look on this landscape. We are going to create a scene that is similar to this one, and we will use colors. One for the background, one for the silhouettes on the background, then we will have the center. We will have some silhouettes that are going to be a bit in the background and in the foreground, so we are going to have two colors for that and one color for the front silhouettes that will help us to create this nice scene. Back to the Color Palette, and now let's create our own. Actually, I really like this color that I have chosen for this random Color Palette so I will just leave it there. This is going to be my background color, and I need to choose a bit darker one so that I can see these trees in the background. These ones. Then for some reason, I'm really into violet now. I will choose saturated violet for this, for one of the center colors and a bit warmer one and a bit darker one for the front. For the full front where we will have the silhouettes, I will choose simply this color but in a really darker version. Okay, this is my Color Palette. Now, what I'm going to do is to turn on the Value Check and check my values. Now you can see this is okay, this is okay, this is okay, but I have to do something with these ones. Make this color lighter and this color, actually it fits, maybe it will going to be a bit darker. I turn off the Value Check layer, pick on this color and make it a bit brighter, and now check it again. Yeah, it has to be a bit brighter again. I will make it a bit brighter and more saturated. Maybe like this. Let's check it. Yeah, it fits. Maybe it is going to be a bit lighter still. Yeah, it is okay now let's check it. It is really bright and this has to be a bit darker. I will just pick up the color by holding down my finger and make it a bit darker. Now I'll Value Check. It has to be identical almost. It looks great and this is all right. You can progress by looking at every color that you have chosen if you need to adjust the value so that you have it all right. I will turn on the Value Check and I will create a Color Palette from this. I will go to the "Pallets", "Create a new palette". I will simply name it "Forest Scene" and go back to the classic and just simply pick them up. Okay, it looks great. There is another reason you need to choose the right values, and that is that your illustration needs to work in grayscale as well. This will automatically make your illustration look more compelling to the viewer. What I wanted to show you how to create a Value check layer, you simply create a new layer, select gray, fill the whole layer and change the blending mode. Hit this "N" and choose a "Color". Well, now you have a Value Check layer. In this video, you have learned how to choose the right colors for your scene. Now let's move to the most exciting part, the illustration itself. 7. The Project: Welcome to the final illustration part. Just open up the project file. This is just a title, so go to Layers and you can turn this off. Now, you can see that I have created layers for you. You have the Value Check layer, which is now turned on. You can turn it on and off to see if your layers and values are right. Then you have a Composition Grid that you can turn on. This composition grid will help you to place the horizon line and elements, and to create a better composition. It is related to the rule of thirds, which means that you divide the canvas to three even parts, both horizontally and vertically. It will create you for crossing points, where if you put your elements to, your illustration will look more interesting. You have a composition grid integrated into this canvas. You have a front, center, a horizon line, and a background. You can also use the background color. Let's just start. You can use the color palette you have just created, or the one that I include in the class resources. Here are the brushes, the forest scene brushes that I have created for you. From coffee and things like that. I really enjoyed creating them, so I hope you will use them, but it is not obligatory, so you can use any brushes that you like. Also, you don't need to follow me step-by-step, I mean, copy what I'm doing. Be creative. I am not including any sketches in this class because I am going to improvise this whole scene. I want you to do so as well. The first step is to place the horizon line. The question is, where? As we already learned, if you place the horizon line to the lower third, the viewer will be part of your illustration more. He will be as if on the ground with you. The first step is to choose the horizon line layer. Choose a brush for it. I will use the hard liner and choose the third color. The color from the center, which is lighter, I will choose this one to draw the horizon line. You can choose any shape, so it doesn't need to be like a straight line. You can have a little hill in it. I will just have it like this. I will just fill it with color in just a second. I will make it more filled so that I can fill it with color. You can like make it more even or a little better. This is going to be the base for our illustration. Now, the second is to choose a background color. I differentiate between these two. We are going to draw the silhouettes of the background trees to the Background layer. Simply just choose a background color and choose the first one. Now, go to the layer of the background. Choose the color that is the second. Choose a brush for it. I am going to use the dry flower liner that I have created from dry flowers. Now, one thing you can do is to go to Google and look for tree silhouettes. I definitely don't want you to copy any of them. Just get inspired. I will keep drawing tree silhouettes that I love to draw so then this illustration is in my style and I don't want to overdo it. I would just speed this up. I will draw like five, maybe six trees at the background. You can do so as well. By no means it has to be perfect. Now, we have the background, we have the ground and background trees. Now, let's go to the center and choose the fourth color that is going to be about the elements that we have in the center. What we are going to have, I thought that I will have a tree right here somewhere. It will start here. Not at the horizon line, but a bit lower. I will play with this thing as well, like this. [inaudible]. I will place one tree up here to the hill, so it will be closer to the horizon line. It can be also in the horizon line. Now, again, be creative. Think about these things for yourself. I will create this tree here, like this. As you can see, I already have space, I mean depth. This tree is in the front. This tree is at the back. What I thought that between these two, I will place an animal, silhouette of an animal. I thought of a bunny. I will just go and find rabbits silhouette. You can just get, again, creative. Simply just get inspiration. Do not copy. I will go here and I will draw a bunny that I think will look good. I'm doing this quickly because I really don't want to spend more time on it than necessary. I think you can work on it so much more. When you get the idea, you feel want to spend a lot of time on it. Now, let's go to the front and choose the darkest color. I will just draw some bushes here or hills, or I don't know exactly. Like this. I will add some really close elements, floral elements, as if the viewer was looking to this bunny from the bushes. Can you see this? This was done by like five-minutes and this can be a base for an illustration. Let's move on to the next video and refine it to have it a bit better. 8. Refining The Image: What we can do now is to play a bit more with depth. We can add details in the front. For example, we can refine the bunny or make these front elements in more detail so that they look better. What else you can do is to shade because we haven't done any shading. You can go to the background. Now we are going to choose different colors. For example, I'm going to choose these trees and choose a bit darker version of them and choose, I'm not sure, the Coffee Shader, and Alpha Lock the background trees. I'm missing some trees from here. They look great. You can create them on a different layer as well. I will Alpha Lock it and choose the slider color and the Coffee Shader, and just shade them a bit so that it has a bit of texture. Now, I will move to the center. I will refine these trees. I will use Alpha Lock and choose this darker color that I have at the foreground and again, just to go over them and shade them like this. You can still hit the Value check layer to see if you have your values right. I will go to the front and chose an even darker color and Alpha Lock it. With the Coffee Shader, I will just go over it and add a bit of texture and make it a bit darker, like this. I will add a new layer, and I will hit the "Forest Magic" and choose white and see what it does. I will make it less opaque. I will turn on the composition grid. I think this is super cute and super easy and super simple. By this, I mean that you can work on it a lot more. You can create a new layer to add more details. You can refine the silhouettes more. I don't want to overdo this. I am so excited to see what you create and how your little scene will look like. Voila, how easy it was, right? I hope you enjoyed this project. In this video, you had a chance to apply all the theory we covered in this class. Now, let's see how you can create your project in the next one. 9. Upload Your Project: Congratulations, you are finished with your illustration. In this video, I'm going to show you how to upload your project to the project gallery. But first, let me just tell you a few things. The first is, that this illustration you have created is already complete in itself and will look good in a style, but it can be developed further. Now we worked with silhouettes, but you really can work on details. If you take a look on the character design for beginners class, or if you have already done it, you can see that the build up of the scene itself is based on the theory you have just learned. If you haven't taken that class, I suggest you continue with that. You will build a character and you can place it into their scene. This is the base, and you can go anywhere from it. Let's just upload that project. When you open skill share in a browser, you can go again to the projects and resources tab and hit Create project button. Upload a cover photo, your project needs a cover image. Now as this illustration is versatile, you can upload it as a cover image. But on the other hand, you can also create one. You can write on it. You can place it to a shape its on you, you have a total freedom in this. The most important is to export it as a jpeg and uploaded. Hit, Share, jpeg and Save image. Below the cover image, I would love you to insert the full image again even if you already have it as a cover, because in the cover it will be cropped. Please also include a little description. You can tell me how you felt during the class. What was new info to you, or what you liked about the class, extra. If you create more versions which is totally an option, include them here as well, and now hit Publish. In this video, you have learned how to prepare and publish your project. I'm so excited to see what you create. Now let's move on to the final video and summarize what you have learned in the class. 10. Final Thoughts: Okay. So again, congratulations. If you are watching this video, it means that you have gone through the whole class and you have uploaded your projects. You are amazing. In this class we have covered so much. So let's just do a little recap on what you have learned. You have learned what is perspective and its tools to create illusion of space. You have learned what is a horizon line and how to position it to influence the point of the viewer. You have learned what is linear perspective and that things that are closer look bigger than things further away. You have learned that colors get brighter, paler, and cooler in a distance, and darker, warmer, and more saturated in the foreground, and so much more. You also had a chance to apply all this knowledge in an easy illustration, and I advice, you can be proud of your project. Again, do not forget to upload your project to the project gallery, Check out what other students have done, and comment on their work, give feedback, interact, then make sure to leave me a review. It is really important to me to know what you think about the class, and for others to know what to expect from the class. Follow me here on Skillshare to get notified about the latest classes and announcements. If you really wanted to be up-to-date, checkout my social media; Instagram, and Facebook. You are also invited to join the Artmother's Online Artroom, which is an exclusive community for my students, and you can just share your other artworks or these projects as well, to just get a little bit more feedback and interact with me as I try to be as active as I can in the Facebook group. All right. I think that's it for now. See you in my other classes, and happy creating.