Drawing a cabin
 

I've done a few houses in pictures and my biggest problem has always been to get the angel of the walls and roof the way they look in the reference photo. Usually after much erasing I get it close but I'm looking for the easiest way to do it. I was thinking of trying a compass. Need to buy one today. Any one have advice on this subject?

You have to draw in perspective. What that means is that you are going to have to pull out the old ruler. Keep in mind - the farther back an object is..the smaller it will be and as it comes forward on the page it becomes larger.

Hopefully this will give an idea where to start. http://www.technologystudent.com/designpro/perhous2.htm

A ruler is all you should need. I did a few cityscapes using a similar method..there are different levels of perspective drawings..1 point..2 point..3 point..for your case I think this is the appropriate perspective method to use.

I get the idea of perspective but that tutorial is messed up. I messaged the back line of the roof going down on the undetailed picture and the detailed picture and they are not the same angel or the same length of line in the back. The undetailed is much shorter and the angel is such that it makes the slant more pronounced and it looks distorted to me. Where as measuring the detailed one it is has better perspective.

Explanation of the measurements on the bottom of the tutorial will be very helpful to me and I thank you so much for researching this.

No they aren't the same angle but that is the beauty of it..it's showing you how the perspective lines work. That where you place your lines makes a difference in how the house turns out. Where (and how wide) you put that vertical (corner) line makes a huge difference in how the house looks and from what perspective you are looking at. As does where you put the end line (the line that determines how long or short you want the house to look). You can make your house look however you want.

The more detailed version looks so different because it is set apart from the horizontal line. The less detailed version is sitting along the horizontal line (as illustrated). The same technique is used for the more detailed version however it is set below the horizontal line. You use that horizontal line and vanishing points as a guide to help you no matter where on the page you decide to put your house.

Did I help or completely muddle things up?

I don't recall ever having to do exact measurements. We made our ruler do the work for us. but we didn't sit and measure and measure and measure. We made a straight line..figured out where we wanted our vanishing point (or points) and worked out from there.

See if this is any better for you. The house in this example is set above the horizon line. As you can see the same method is used for it as the house along the horizon line as the house below the horizon line. :-) ...http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articl...nt-perspective

Hi Terry, it may be helpful to understand one point, two point and three point perspective. This link explains it well I think.
http://www.watercolorpainting.com/pe..._2_3_point.htm
As an exercise, you can sketch a railroad track. Then try sketching one at an angle. Then try making it a railroad that's on a bridge with pylons over water. Another good way to grasp it would be to draw simple cubes like we did as kids....a square with a smaller square inside that you connect the corners on. If you extend those lines out on the cube until they intersect then you will see your perspective point.

Thanks Courtney