How do I make this guy eye-level?

RHirsch

This is a challenge for me as well. When I'm having trouble with the perspective of a character, I draw a full 3D box in the perspective I want and draw the character inside of it. Works well especially if done in Photoshop, you can do the box on one layer and the character on another, then just delete the box layer.

MOO

@rhirsch Yes, that's what I was thinking but I don't do photoshop, I'll have t use a pencil and paper

MOO

@xovq Okay, that makes sense. I'll give it a try and see if I can make it look right. It's kind of a hard angle to draw as it is anyway.

Dennis Spaans

Just my fifty cents, but first start with a horizon line and then line up his head/eyes with that line?

smceccarelli

This view is from above, so the horizon line is way off the top of the page - you would not be able to draw it on this page. You could print out your photo small and paste it on a larger sheet of paper, then you would be able to draw your horizon line and the corresponding feet box.
It is way easier to do this stuff digitally, but when I was working traditionally, I used to have a very large cardboard that I could place on my desk and fix my drawing onto. I used it to draw the horizon and the vanishing points (in 2 and 3 point perspective these should usually be outside of the image area) and work out a grid with light pencil on my drawing, so that I could then continue without the cardboard.
If you want to have the horizon at his eye level, you need to redraw everything - at the moment he is drawn from the top. You could take a blank page and draw the horizon where you want his head to be, then draw your containment and feet box from there.

Dennis Spaans

Then im not sure i understand. How can an aerial view of someone be eye level? Do you want the 'camera' in the air but the running guy looking into it? Or do you want it to be eyeleveled for the viewer? I actually like your initial drawing to be honest

The chickens at the bottom left and right should be rotated around their z axes to have all perspectives right. The guy itself is good I think.

rcartwright

If you analyze the drawing the horizon line is actually around the top of the mans head. Every top plane below this is visable to the viewer. The issue I see is that the chickens have a more flat less 3-d look so you aren't really sowing the top or bottom planes them so they don't really fit with the main character

MOO

@smceccarelli Oh, great advice! That is very helpful. Thank you!

MOO

@dennis-spaans I don't really know what a Z axes is!

rcartwright

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen the third dimensional axis that goes away from the viewer into the picture. Think a cube vs a square. A square has two axis vertical and horizontal but a cube has a third dimension on the z axis

MOO

@rcartwright Ah, okay. Thanks! I'll work on it

TessaW

I would say that for this particular drawing, it might be difficult to implement the bounding box because the position of your character is tilted and his limbs are spread forward and back. I feel bounding boxes are more helpful in a less extreme pose- though I could be wrong. In this case you would need a working knowledge of what objects look like in relation to the horizon line, but I'm not sure how much a bounding box would be helpful.

I've taken naked doll bum again and approximated the general pose the guy is in. The first photo, I have my camera almost above the doll, and this is how I envision how you are showing us the scene. Then I have progressively lowered the camera, until the middle of the figure is about eye-level. I have not changed the position of the doll or where I am standing. Sorry for the image quality.

This is how I envision the bounding box and the horizon line. They may not be 100% accurate. . .and are just approximations.

MOO

@tessw Wow! That's very helpful, thanks. Seems like D or E would be the best position. I think D. That was very helpful!

TessaW

No problem. Just keep practicing perspective and it will slowly come to you. It takes time! Go to the new How to Draw Everything Class and look at the videos in Part V Shapes. Do all the exercises there.

MOO

@tessw Yes, I started the course the other day. Haven't got to the shapes yet.