How to Draw a City Street in Photoshop
When drawing a city street in Photoshop, you will use the line tool and apply the principle of one point perspective. One point perspective is a way of showing how images become smaller, relative to each other, with distance. It was invented by Brunelleschi in the Renaissance. By creating a vanishing point in the center of the image on your horizon line, and having all the parallel lines of the street meet there, you will draw believable buildings in proper scale that will have the qualities of a street scene.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Computer with Photoshop
- An image of a street scene for reference (optional)
Instructions
-
Draw a city street
-
1
Open a new, blank document in Photoshop. Using the line tool, draw a line across the center of the image. This is your horizon.
-
2
Draw a small hash mark vertically in the center of the line you just drew. The point where the line and the mark meet is your vanishing point. All parallel lines--from the street, sidewalks, buildings or windows--will meet there. This will create the illusion of looking down a city street towards the horizon.
-
-
3
Using the line tool, draw a diagonal line from each of the two lower corners of the image to the vanishing point, then move in an inch, equidistant from each corner, and draw two more diagonal lines from each side to the vanishing point. This is the sidewalk and street.
-
4
Using the line tool again, draw diagonal lines from the upper two corners to the vanishing point. These will outline the tops of the buildings.
-
5
On the right and the left of the image, draw vertical lines connecting the two diagonals at irregular intervals. These outline the buildings.
-
6
Again with the line tool, draw diagonal lines from the sides of the image to the vanishing point on each side of the street. These lines divide the stories of the buildings, and will be used to show windows and doors, so draw as many as you want.
-
7
Draw vertical lines within the newly drawn diagonals to show windows and doors. You can articulate them and add doorknobs using your shape drawing tool. Use the eraser to remove diagonals on the buildings that you do not need.
-
8
Draw horizontal lines across the sidewalks on either side of the street. The lines should be closer together as you approach the vanishing point.
-
1
