Space Drawing: Perspective

Cartoonist Dongho Kim has been dedicated to his work, working primarily on urban sketches. Instead of stopping at depicting scenery, he has created stories by filling these spaces with imaginary characters. After gaining a deep understanding of space and the placement of different parts and elements through this process, Kim has reached a point where he can teach the long-passed-down theory of perspective and point of view using his own illustrations. This version is a translation of the Korean book that accomplished that very feat.

This book is suitable for beginner and intermediate level artists who find it difficult to transpose a real-life space onto a flat surface, not necessarily for top-level experts. When teaching established theories, the author explains in detail every step that the reader needs to take to be able to reach the conclusion intuitively. Considering the relationship between the observer and the object that is being drawn is a crucial step before the pencil even touches the paper. In doing so, the artist is already filling the blank sheet with accurate virtual spaces. The two characters in this book offer to take our hands and walk us through this process.

This book begins with a deep dive into eye levels and vanishing points and then moves onto basic perspectives and to more complex perspectives such as the “fish-eye perspective,” using many of the author’s illustrations as examples. He also includes photographs and sketches from his travels to further the reader’s understanding. We are also given warnings of common mistakes that students make that come from his vast lecturing experience. Written in detail and plain language as if the reader were a student in class learning directly from the author, as was his intention, this book is a wonderful introductory resource to understanding space and being able to draw any space freely.