You Can Draw in 30 Days: The Fun, Easy Way to Learn to Draw in One Month or Less (50 page)

D
o you remember how cool the opening sequence of the first Superman movie looked? (I know I’m dating myself here; the film was made in 1978.) Go ahead and Google an image of the poster for
Superman, the Movie.

That very cool, superslick title lettering that you see is an example of two-point perspective. When I saw this movie in high school, I became obsessed with lettering in two-point perspective. Just as a side note here, notice how the Superman image is created in one-point perspective? Side note to the side note: Do you remember the opening sequence for
Star Wars
, where the battleship flies into view overhead and seems to go on forever? That is a
great
one-point-perspective scene, as is the opening story text rolling onto the screen. Side note three: You can learn a lot about 3-D graphic illustration by studying movie posters!

I’ve had many of my adult students request that I include 3-D lettering lessons in this book. Because I have limited space in these thirty days to cover more than one lettering lesson, I also recommend you take a look at another one of my books,
Drawing in 3-D with Mark Kistler
, which includes instructions on multiple 3-D lettering styles for every letter in the alphabet, A-Z. For this lesson, I’ve chosen two-point-perspective lettering because it’s the most challenging, the most interesting, and the most visually rewarding. Let’s start with the short two-letter word “Hi” in two-point perspective lettering. Then you can experiment with longer words later.

1. Lightly draw your horizon line across your entire sheet of paper. Place your vanishing points at the edges.

2. Establish the center line of the lettering block.

3. Lightly sketch in the vanishing-point guide lines for the top and bottom of the lettering block.

 

4. Define the block faces of the letters. Be sure the near letter block is larger. This is a great example of size. The letter you want to appear closer will automatically be drawn larger as you follow your vanishing-point guide lines. This will become even more important when you draw words with three or more letters in the future.

5. Shape the face of the letter
H
by following your guide lines closely. Remember how important the vertical lines are. Dart your eyes to the vertical edge of your paper, and the vertical center line to ensure that your
H
is being shaped correctly.

6. Continue by shaping the letter
I
. You can clearly see now what a predominate role the drawing law of size plays in creating this 3-D visual illusion.

7. Lightly sketch in the thickness vanishing-point guide lines on the right side.

8. Establish the corner thickness of the letter
/
with two guide dots. From those guide dots, draw your vertical thickness and your vanishing-point thickness.

9. Complete the thickness of the letter
/
with the vertical line for the stem. Now, carefully line up all the letter
H
corners with the right-side vanishing point.

 

 

 

 

 

10. Position your light source, and shade all the surfaces opposite. Take a few moments to erase any extra guide lines.