How to Draw in 5 Point Perspective - an easy and fun art lesson

How to Draw in 5 Point Perspective - An easy and fun art lesson

9/15/2020

Five point perspective drawing of a city using colored pencils and marker.

Drawing in five-point perspective is truly fun, and you can create amazing drawings with little effort. There are only a few simple rules to learn, and you will be off and running. To make things easier, it helps if you are familiar with basic one-point perspective, but not it is not completely necessary. See the slideshow on one-point perspective drawing at the bottom of this article for help.

The idea of five-point perspective is that you are drawing a scene that is contained within a globe shape. The light of the globe is altering your normal perception of the scene and creating a fish-eye view. You can draw interiors or exterior views with this system, however, this article will focus on how to draw a city in five-point perspective.

This is an art project that I do with my eleventh-grade students, and they always come out great. However, it could be done by students as young as middle school all the way up to adults wanting to learn some fun new drawing skills. Once you have learned how to draw in five-point perspective, you will be addicted. You really can create amazing drawings that blow people away. Just don’t let anyone know how easy it actually is.

How to draw in 5 point perspective like a pro - title page.

An image of a black and white drawing of a city in 5 point perspective.

A circle with an X and Y Axis is the starting position for drawing in five-point perspective.

An image of a sphere with guidelines drawn in for five-point perspective drawing.

An image of a 5 point perspective template with the x and y axis highlighted.

The three rules of five point perspective are: 1 All vertical lines go to the top and bottom points. 2 All horizontal lines go to the east and west points. 3. All lines going to the horizon go to the middle fifth point.

Continued directions for drawing a basic box in five-point perspective.

Drawing tutorial for drawing buildings and a road in 5 point perspective.

Image of a sphere and fish eye lense drawing of a buildings in five point perspective. The three rules of perspective.

Supplies you will need to start your drawing.

Initial steps in creating a cityscape using five-point perspective.

First steps in perspective drawing tutorial.

Image of the basic drawing sketch of a city in 5 point perspective.

Red lines are used to show the architecture for your five-point drawings.

Finished initial sketch of architectural elements in your 5 point cityscape.

Starting to use Sharpie markers to outline your skyscraper buildings.

Use your eraser to erase excess marks from your drawing after you add the sharpie marker.

Begin coloring in the sky of your cityscape drawing.

Picture of the final details for your colorful five-point drawing.

continuing to add color to your perspective drawing.

Adding cool colors for the shadows and warm colors for the building fronts.

Finished five point cityscape drawing project.

Another shot of the finished 5 point perspective drawing project.

Now it is your turn to try your hand at this project.

I hope you are enjoying drawing in five-point perspective. Below you will find several examples of student artwork. These students followed the same three rules of perspective to complete their five-point cityscapes. Each student added their own personality and creativity to the project. It is always surprising to see the many ways students apply the ideas of this lesson to their artwork. You can too! You are only limited by your imagination.

Student examples of five-point drawings.

Colorful student example of a 5 point drawing project.

A high school drawing in five-point perspective.

Overhead view of a city drawn in five points.

Example of student artwork: Five Point Perspective Drawing Like a Pro!

Drawing example of small town in perspective.

Resources for further research on drawing in perspectie.

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7 Comments

Author: Bruce Black

Welcome to Artful Academia:
Welcome to my blog, where I celebrate the joy of creative living and the beauty of the arts! As a professional landscape painter and experienced middle school and high school art teacher, I'm passionate about sharing my artistic journey with you. Here, you'll find a treasure trove of my own artwork, insightful art history lessons, engaging art projects, and motivating tips to inspire and support you on your own creative path. Join me as we embark on a journey of artistic exploration and inspiration together!

Laurie Larkin-Boyle

1/4/2021 05:15:29 am

Great Lesson!

Chris Carvalho

11/24/2022 11:45:30 am

Hi, very enlightening lesson! I have some little difficulties to understand how could it be converted to a "inside fish-eye"/concave 5-points perspective of the city or a landscape, and how to elevate the horizon up, lets say, 1/3 above the center of the sphere? I know the distortion effect would built up further... I appreciate very much your answers. Thanks!
Chris

11/24/2022 11:46:36 am

Bruce link

11/28/2022 08:12:30 am

Hello Chris and thank you for your comment. These are some tough questions. Regarding a concave view, I am really not sure. I would guess that you would need to have the longitude and latitude lines moving in arcs that are opposite to my layout. So, above the horizon line, they would look like smiley faces and below, they would look like frowns. I think that might make it so that your buildings wold arc toward the viewer rather than toward the horizon line. Regarding moving the horizon line up, that seems more straight forward. I would think the horizon line could be moved up or down as you wish, as long as you are still using the center point for lines going into the sphere.

Marie Madden

12/10/2022 12:47:14 pm

Hi, I just wanted to thank you for these amazing resources.

Ellen Rayan link

5/11/2023 11:53:52 am

The final results were absolutly outstanding!!!I recomend it!

Stella Tabesh

5/11/2023 11:56:31 am

SO FUN!

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