Live Perspective: Draw Animals in 3D Space

What You'll Be Creating

If you treat your artistic development seriously, I'm sure you've tried to learn perspective and to apply it to everything you draw. However, even if your animals in perspective looked 3D, they also became as stiff as stone statues.

Why? Because if you wanted to use only one perspective grid, all the lines of the picture were bound to it, which means they turned out having all the same rhythm. Yes, you could add another perspective grid, for example for a turned head, but can you imagine all those converging lines? And what about the neck: wouldn't it have some kind of "transition perspective" between those two?

All these problems come from one source. Perspective as you know it, called linear perspective, was created to simplify the visual phenomena occurring when observing a big area, e.g. a city or a landscape, or maybe a herd of bison. Never a single bison! Why? It's simply too small to be affected by converging lines. It doesn't mean it's not affected by perspective at all—but unfortunately, the tutorials you might have read focus completely on large-scale scenes, as if small scale had nothing to do with perspective.

Of course, perspective is inevitable in realistic drawing. At the same time very few tutorials teach how to use it without sketching a grid at the very beginning of the drawing process. That's why usually artists need to work it out themselves, as I did, but this time I'll try to show you the way.

This tutorial is a practical extension of this article, and I strongly suggest reading it thoroughly before trying this one. Also, keep in mind this tutorial isn't "how to draw animals in perspective" or "how to draw animals in perspective, but rather "how to draw animals in perspective. It's directed to people who already know how to draw animals, but struggle with creating more interesting poses for them.

Still Perspective vs. Organic Perspective

Converging lines appear when objects follow the same rhythm. They don't occur in nature on a large scale too often, but humans love order and arrange their creations this way. This is the first reason why perspective seems to be necessary only to draw man-made space.

Some pictures simply shout "perspective!"...

...while others don't

Linear perspective is all about right angles. They're predictable and neat, and can easily be organized with straight lines. Unfortunately, nature doesn't know anything about right angles. It creates them spontaneously (usually on a very small scale), but it doesn't favor them in any way, as architects would. We could say that chaos is far more natural, but how can chaos be constrained with perspective rules?

There's no such thing as organized chaos

Even if animals had a silhouette based on right angles, in most cases they wouldn't follow linear perspective rules. They're just too small! Let's take a closer look at this "horse". Its lines converge so far from us that we can safely say they don't. Where's the vanishing point then? Where's the horizon?

That's how it's going to look in most cases. Even if you manage to find straight lines in a silhouette, they won't converge and won't show you the horizon. And since the horizon is the first thing you should draw in classic linear perspective, how can you even start without it?

Perspective Without Vanishing Points

On a small scale, the scale on which humans observe animals, we don't need vanishing points, but the horizon is still crucial. This is what a human eye sees when it comes to a small area (no converging lines visible). Notice two horizons—horizontal and vertical. They're actually the same, but we favor the horizontal one because we rarely move up and down, and our eyes are placed horizontally, too.

The point in the center is the one you're looking at. When you look up, your horizontal horizon slides up along the vertical one. You can't look anywhere but in the center of your field of view (FOV). However, for simplicity's sake we can ignore the motion of the eyeballs and treat only the motion of the head as a change of perspective. Both horizons are simply lines crossing the center, and they have nothing to do with Earth's horizon.

A cube looks 2D only when it's in the center. Every motion away from the horizon (no matter which) results in showing us another side of the cube, at the expense of accuracy. A cube moving away from the center seems to be rotating:

• If it's moving up, it gradually shows you more and more of its bottom, until it becomes a square and the front becomes a line.
• If it's moving down, it gradually shows you more and more of its top, until it becomes a square and the front becomes a line.
• If it's moving left, it gradually shows you more and more of its right side, until it becomes a square and the left side becomes a line.
• If it's moving right, it gradually shows you more and more of its left side, until it becomes a square and the right side becomes a line.

These movements can be combined, e.g. a cube can move up and left, giving you three visible sides (bottom, right, and front). What's interesting, a cube rotating in the center will look exactly the same!

This example shows how a cube changes when going up, right, or combined

How to Draw a CubeAlthough the picture above makes a good reference, you don't really need it. There are simple rules for drawing a cube in every perspective, and they can be used for drawing other forms, too. The most important lesson from it is: how to draw something in perspective without setting it at all. Because we don't want perspective—we want what perspective gives us!

Basic Rules

You can show one, two, or three sides at a time. It isn't really like "the more sides, the better", but rather "the more sides, the more distortion".

1. Only one side will give you perfect 2D view. It's the easiest to draw; no space for mistakes here. However, it's also flat and boring.
2. If you want to show another side, you'll need to compromise. The front can't be a square any more, if you want to squish something next to it. The more complete one side is, the more squished the other one.
3. If you want to include the third side, it'll push the angles, too. There is no way to preserve right angles with three sides visible (unless you get rid of the depth by dividing them).

How to control this chaos? You only need to remember that the rotation leads to a point where the current front becomes a side, and a side becomes new front. In order to reach this state, the current front (A) needs to get smaller as the side (B) gets bigger.

Basically, every cube is made out of two squares with a distance between them. When you connect their corners, all the sides appear by themselves. However, our vision doesn't work that simply:

 

Let's take a look at this scheme once again, trying to find the connected sides. There they are!

But hey, there seem to be four of them in combined views! How does it work? How can we foresee where they should be to make an accurate cube?

Step 1

Start with a cube in the center view ("no perspective"). This is going to be a base for the front, no matter how visible it'll be.

Step 2

The front needs to be changed if other sides are to be introduced. It has two lengths: width (horizontal length) and height (vertical length). If you want to add a side that's placed vertically, you need to shorten the vertical length of the front:

• A—a bit of the bottom will be visible, so I shortened the front slightly.
• B—I want the bottom and the front to look the same big, so I made the front half smaller.
• C—I want a bit of the top to be visible, so I shortened the front a bit.

Step 3

We need to do the same with the horizontal sides and horizontal lengths:

• A—I shortened the front a bit to reveal part of the left side.
• B—I shortened the front a bit to reveal part of the right side.
• C—I shortened the front a bit to reveal part of the left side.

Step 4

The front is done, and since we need two sides and a distance to make a cube, let's add another side. The one we've drawn before will now be the back. Draw it once again higher (to reveal the bottom) or lower (to reveal the top). The rule to evaluate the distance is:

The shorter the vertical length, the bigger the shift and the more of the upper/lower side will be visible.

Step 5

That would be enough if we wanted to rotate the cube only vertically, but we want more. Let's move the front again, to the side we don't want to see:

The shorter the horizontal length, the bigger the shift and the more of the left/right side will be visible.

Step 6

To make a base for the angles, we need to copy both front and back, and move it to the same side as before. The distance between the original and the copy is based on this rule:

The bigger the horizontal and vertical lengths, the bigger the distance.

Step 7

A cube has only eight corners, but our sides all together have sixteen! That's way too many. To pick the correct ones, first focus on the top/bottom side (depending on what's not visible in our perspective). Select the corners of the "original" sides.

Step 8

Now move to the border of the side we will see (top or bottom) and select the corners of the copied sides.

Step 9

Now simply connect the dots:

• Copied corners will make the visible top/bottom. 
• Original corners will make the hidden top/bottom.

The other sides should be easy to create out of them.

Why no vanishing points? Here's the answer. Converging lines look converging only when you look at them from a distance. If you crop a smaller area, the lines will look almost parallel. That's why linear perspective works so great with cities, big buildings, and man-planted forests. You'd need a whole herd of animals standing in perfect rows to see the converging lines. You don't need them for one animal seen by an observer of similar size. No vanishing points are necessary, until you decide to draw a huge monster (or a normal animal seen by a tiny observer).

In most cases the bending is so subtle that we can ignore it

This basic rule about visible sides may seem confusing, but I'm sure you've used it even unintentionally. Just put a simple animal in place of the cube:

This is perspective in action, though without right angles and vanishing points!

Cubes in Nature

However, cubes are very hard to find in animal bodies. The only useful application for them is a bounding box. It's usually a cuboid, with its longer side symbolizing the length of the body, and the shorter one the width of the body. It defines the perspective by showing the ground and the "ceiling". However, the perspective of the animal inscribed into the box doesn't need to define it—the box only shows us the ground as the observes sees it, and a default position of the animal.

If the animal shares its perspective fully with its bounding box, it will be literally bound by it

For elements of the body inside the box, it's better to use balls and their derivatives. Look what happens to the center lines of a ball when the perspective changes:

These lines are crucial to understand perspective and 3D overlapping. For animal (and human, too) drawing, they're as important as vanishing points in architectural drawing!

These bending lines add a lot of volume to forms and show the perspective in a clear way

Notice how these lines define the forms in 3D, showing us when and how they cover each other. Compare them to the balls to remember this rule.

They're also indicators of the bending of the surface. Notice that in the case of a cube, when the sides aren't bent, the lines only change length, but not shape. When we want to draw rounded forms, these lines come in handy. Even when we don't sketch them, they appear in the form of shading and texture (yes, a texture can't be flat on a rounded surface!).

Enough theory, let's see how to use it in practice!

Simplified Animal Skeleton

The pose of an animal is defined by the pose of its skeleton. This is why it's so important to learn about the bones of an animal, their construction and proportions. Fortunately, most of the animals you'll draw will share the same skeletal structure:

1. Skull
2. Neck
3. Torso
4. Hips
5. Arm with shoulder (A)
6. Forearm with elbow (B)
   
7. Hand with wrist (C) and fingers (D)
   
8. Thigh with knee (E)
9. Calf
   
10. Foot with heel (F) and toes (G)

The shape of individual bones, though helpful, doesn't need to be memorized. Look at the scheme below—it's simple, easy to remember, and you can still find all the structures described above!

However, this simplified skeleton is still too complicated and stiff to start a picture with it. If you want your lines to be truly free, simplify them even more!

This way you can draw every pose you imagine. However, only as long as you stay in two dimensions. It's a bit boring, isn't it? We perceive three dimensions every day, and we don't want to be limited to only two of them!

If you're having problems at this point, check these exercises before going any further. It'll spare you a lot of frustration! To understand movement, check my article about poses and the introduction to this tutorial about run cycle.

The bad news is, we can't draw in 3D yet. The good news is, we can pretend we do—and even so well that others will believe us. To do this we need to convert the simplified skeleton to a simulated 3D form.

From 2D to 3D

We're going to work on every part of our simplified skeleton to understand how to add depth to it.

Torso

This is the simplest, and also the most important part. The torso is the part that gives direction to the rest of the body. It's the front of everything. Even though the head seems to lead the body, it can easily be turned to a different direction while running—you can't do the same with the torso without changing the direction of the main movement.

The 2D base for the torso is an ellipse. An ellipse is symmetrical in both axes—no matter how and when you draw it, it can't be changed. It has two axes—a major axis (longer, A) and a minor axis (shorter, B)—that define its shape. The axes are always perpendicular to each other.

A rotated ellipse stays an ellipse

The easiest way to draw an ellipse is to sketch a cross of perpendicular axes, and finish them partially—first with straight lines and then with round ones between them.

A simplified torso we're going to use is made out of elliptical cross-sections. When shown in simple views like top (1), side (2), and front (3), they're either full ellipses or straight lines. To create an illusion of depth we'll need to break this rule.

The shape for the torso can be a barrel or a capsule. No matter what you choose, an ellipsoid will be the best base for it. Most of the time you'll want your torso to be oblong and rounded, just like it:

It doesn't look very easy to draw, does it? Fortunately, an ellipsoid will follow the rhythm of its bounding box—and we already know how to draw a bounding box in every perspective! There's only one problem with the perspective of the ellipses, so let's investigate it step by step.

Step 1

Let's start exactly as we'd do with a cube, but this time use a rectangle as a base from the center view. The procedure is exactly the same, except that the front of the torso is the left side of a cube. So, let's say we want the front (left side) and bottom visible. What can you do with a rectangle to achieve this?

Step 2

Draw diagonals on every pair of corresponding sides and connect them with a line.

Step 3

The axes show us the points where the torso touches the sides of the bounding box. That's a good start!

Step 4

These points are also the centers of every side. You can use them to draw rectangular cross-sections right in the middle of the cuboid. These will be bounding rectangles (looking like trapezes now) for our ellipses.

Step 5

This is where all the problems start. Take a closer look at one of the bounding rectangles.

If you try to draw a simple ellipse inside, it won't touch the the sides of the bounding box, which makes it useless. We can always draw a rotated ellipse, but where to put the axes? What angle do they need?

Step 6

To find out, draw the diagonals of the rectangle.

Step 7

Let's draw an ellipse, starting as we would normally. Sketch two short, straight lines at the ends of the "fake" minor axis.

Step 8

Now things go a bit differently. For an acute angle, draw a normal straight line, but when it comes closer to an obtuse angle, turn a bit to the inside.

Step 9

The other guide lines will look different, too. Draw them long for the area of an obtuse angle and short for an acute angle.

Step 10

You can now finish the ellipse. Draw the opposite arcs in pairs—they should be identical.

Step 11

Do the same with the other rectangles.

Make sure your ellipses are symmetrical, and if not, correct the arcs.

Step 12

You can now draw the outline of the main, outer ellipse. It doesn't need to be perfect, but make sure you enclose all the other ellipses inside.

Step 13

To make the depth more apparent, fade or erase the lines lying on the hidden sides.

It looks very complicated, I agree. The good news is you won't have to repeat all this process every time you want to draw an animal. If you practice long enough, you'll understand what a proper torso looks like, how it changes in perspective, and what your favorite views are. The more experience you get, the less you'll have to resort to drawing a cuboid for the base. But until then—practice!

Hips

Hips are very complicated structures, hard to picture in the classic front/top/back view. Fortunately, we don't need them as a whole in a drawing. The most important elements for us are:

1. Iliac crest—you can feel it in front of your hips, and even see it, if you're skinny.
2. Acetabulum—the "hole" for the thigh bone.
3. Sitting bone—the part that you basically sit on.

As you can see, our simplified animal hips are built of two flat cuboids and circular spots for leg bones. The longer, rotated cuboid may look a bit hard to draw in perspective, but fear not—there's a simple trick for it!

Step 1

Inscribe the side view into a bounding rectangle. Then treat it as a regular side of a cuboid. We want the left and top visible, so we shorten the side properly.

Step 2

Let's use only the bounding rectangle for a while. Build a bounding box out of it.

Step 3

Draw one part of the hips on both sides of the box, then connect them. Remember to follow the rhythm defined by the bounding box!

Step 4

"Cut" the opposite corners of the box with short lines, making an angle similar to the original.

Step 5

Connect the upper points with the upper points on the small box.

Step 6

Copy the lines you've just drawn to find the lower part of the box.

Step 7

Connect the lines to finish the box.

Step 8

You can now add the circles. Don't worry about their perspective—they're spots, so their shape isn't that important. Clean up the picture to define the visible and hidden lines.

Skull

The skull is the most complicated part of a simplified skeleton. Even though you don't need to draw teeth, the nose, or the complicated curvatures of its surface, there are a few elements that need to be included for the head to have a proper shape.

The method I'm going to show you works for almost every skull you can imagine. However, you'll need to understand what you're drawing in order to modify the elements. The most important thing to determine at the very beginning is whether the animal is a herbivore or a carnivore. Though their skulls can be very similar, there are some general differences:

• Herbivores usually have longer snouts, with big incisors.
• Carnivores usually have wider, stronger jaws, with big canines and small incisors.
• Herbivores generally have eyes on the sides, carnivores—on the front.
• Herbivores may have very big jawbones, designed for chewing, while carnivores can only move their jaws up and down.

No matter how strongly you simplify the skull, it will always be complicated if you want it to be accurate. What you need to define are:

1. Upper jaw—fused with the rest of the skull
2. Lower jaw—mobile, with big bony "hooks" attached to the upper part
3. Eye sockets—no matter how big the eyes are, keep the sockets wide and round
4. Brain case—usually quite small in comparison to the jaws
5. Zygomatic arch—the point where the "hooks" of lower jaw hangs on

Remember that when the lower jaw is open, you need to use a slightly different perspective for it, treating it as a separate part.

Step 1

Because our skull is made of cuboids, it shouldn't be too hard to draw them in perspective. However, it can be time consuming to draw them all separately. You can use this trick instead.
Find a bounding rectangle for all the views to see what kind of cuboid you'll need to use. Then modify the front as a whole, using the method for drawing a cube.

Step 2

Add guide lines to see where the elements should be placed inside the bounding box.

Step 3

Prepare a bounding box in the same size as we've just defined for the side.

Step 4

Draw the elements on the side, following the rhythm of the bounding box.

Step 5

Replicate the elements on the next side.

Step 6

Add other sides, if you need to define other distances too.

Step 7

Connect the sides, still following the rhythm.

Step 8

Add any necessary details. Now you should be ready to draw the skull or head based on the perspective.

Again, using the bounding box isn't obligatory, but it's very useful when you don't have too much experience with cuboids in perspective. Also, once you understand the elements of the skull, you'll be able to create your own method of simplifying them.

Spine

The skull, torso and hips are linked together by the spine. It's this element that makes animals so different from buildings or cars—thanks to the spine, the elements of the body can rotate very independently. That's why the whole body shouldn't be enclosed within one bounding box and its perspective. Accordingly, by using the power of the spine you can add a lot of depth and realism to your picture.
To understand the flexibility of the body, we need to learn the parts of the spine:

1. Cervical spine (neck)—for quadrupeds it starts in the back of the skull and ends in the upper part of the torso. It's S-shaped, which means it can be pretty flexible on its own.
2. Thoracic spine—not a very flexible part. It's good to treat the whole chest as one big block.
3. Lumbar spine—the most flexible part. The longer it is, the more elastic the body (compare a cat and a horse).
4. Sacrum—fused vertebrae make this part stiff. You can treat it as a part of the hips.
5. Caudal spine (tail)—made of very small vertebrae and therefore extremely flexible. However, notice where it starts—the sacrum isn't part of the tail!

No matter how long the neck, it takes a similar S-shape—stiff just by the skull and chest, and more flexible in between. The neck doesn't really move on its own—it's the head that directs it. When drawing it, decide how long the neck can maximally be, and then place the head somewhere in the area within its reach. Afterwards, add the neck.

The lumbar spine adds shape to the back. It's usually straight in the default position, but it can't be bent to make the back more concave or convex. The longer this part of the spine, the more extreme an angle the animal can reach.

Why aren't we saying anything about the perspective of the spine? Because for us it's just a line of no width. It symbolizes the connection between the elements in perspective, but it doesn't need to be changed itself. What changes is the perceived length of this connection, and that's where foreshortening comes to play.

When the elements in a line rotate at the same angle, they all get proportionally shorter (we've already learned how), but not only them—the distance between them gets shorter too! We can say the distance is longest in the side view, and then it gets gradually shorter, until the point where it's equal to zero. Keep in mind it's proportional change—e.g. when the hips and chest are half shorter, so is the spine between them. Don't make it shorter by 2 cm or some other value!

Legs

Just like the spine, the leg bones don't need to be managed in perspective other than by foreshortening. They are indicators of position, with no special width.

It's important to understand the relation between the legs and the other elements of the body. Both the forelegs (arms) and hind legs (legs) can move on their own, but they have their limits. When you want to move them farther, you also need to move the element they're attached to.

Paws

Although the legs themselves can be drawn as simple lines, paws require a different treatment. If you want to be fast, you can draw the fingers as simple cuboids and add details to them later. For slightly better accuracy, you can use the method below.

Step 1

As usual, use a bounding rectangle to create the bounding box.

Step 2

Divide the bounding box into sections just as on the template.

Step 3

Using the template as a reference, connect the points that will make a finger.

Do the same with all the fingers:

Step 4

Later you can add the details, like paw pads, claws, and fur. Keep in mind that these are only a finger—you need the rest of the hand (or foot) to make it complete.

Practical Exercise

Now I'm going to show you how all this information can be used in practice.

Step 1

Start with a basic sketch of your idea. It can be hard to plan depth when you're a total beginner to it, but starting with a perspective grid kills the composition and liveness of your animal, so it's worth trying.

To keep it free from formal mistakes, I decided to draw a made-up species, some kind of feline with its baby. This way we'll focus on creation, not on accurate re‑creation.

Step 2

Try to guess what kind of bounding box your sketch brings to mind and draw it.

Step 3

If we use the bounding box's sides, we don't need to draw them for the chest's bounding box. Just follow the rhythm, to create bounding rectangles for cross‑section ellipses. Then use the usual method to draw the chest.

Step 4

Draw the box for the hips. See how I simplified it?

Step 5

I repeated the steps for the body of the baby:

Step 6

Now, skulls. For the baby I borrowed the rhythm of the big bounding box, but the mother's has a totally new perspective that breaks the monotony of the composition.

Step 7

Add the connecting lines: spine and legs. You can be free here!

Step 8

You can now build the body on the guide lines.

Step 9

When it's all done, you can finally draw the details and refine the picture.

It's the End... Finally!

That was a long tutorial, wasn't it? I know for now it may look very complicated, but with practice it'll become second nature and you'll just feel how to use a certain perspective without all these guide lines and bounding boxes.

Practice a lot! Don't refine every interesting pose you've managed to draw just to show others how good you are. Draw for as long as is necessary to gain confidence—it must come naturally to you, without "unexpectedly good results".

Perspective is the hardest topic in drawing, but the methods I've shown you should help you at least get close to it. Finally, you can move from non-intuitive "where should I place the vanishing points?" to "what sides do I want to present?"

Of course, it doesn't mean vanishing points are totally useless. They're useful when you want to picture motion or scale, but in most cases you can forget what architects teach you—for your own good!
The best thing about drawing animals in perspective is that you can make a whole lot of mistakes without any risk that someone actually notices it. It doesn't work this way for architecture, and that's why perspective tutorials usually require perfection. Don't try to be perfect—learn how to delude people that they're looking at something 3D, and that is all you need!

Read More

Photo & Video Recommended Reading List

Photography by Taichiro Ueki

The Instructors here at Tuts+ Photo & Video are a diverse crew. Though we come from different walks of life, one thing we share is our love of books: photo and video books.

I asked our Instructors about their favourite books on learning how to make photos and video, and here are the results! This is the Tuts+ annotated reading list of great books for learning to make photo and video, broken down into handy sections:

1. All About Light
2. Photographic Craft: Traditions and Practice
3. Living the Decisive Moment
4. Embracing Film and Video
5. Navigating the Perils of Post-Production
6. The Business of Image Making
7. Understanding the Nature of Images
   

1. All About Light

Light, Science and Magic

Hunter and Fuqua

The book about light. If you really want to understand light at a fundamental level and how to use it, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.

Hot Shoe Diaries 

Joe McNally

Big light from small flashes. First read Light, Science and Magic, then put everything to practice with this book. Recommended by Ben Lucas.

Understanding Exposure

Brian Peterson

The man. The mullet. The teaching is excellent, the photos exceptional and the author's mullet unequalled. Recommended by Harry Guinness.

2. Photographic Craft: Tradition and Practice

Digital Photography

Bruce Warren

If you can buy only one textbook about photography, this is the one to get. Straightforward, practical, and clear instruction from start to finish. This book covers the fundamentals so well I still sometimes consult my copy from ten years ago. The current edition is up-to-date with digital technology and practices

Photojournalism

Ken Kobré

Even if you aren't a photojournalist, the technique and approaches in this book will help anyone getting into assignment photography - whether it's editorial or commercial.

Doing Documentary Work

Robert Coles

Colourful and alive, this book is a must-read for anyone engaged in recording the world around them.

Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It

Scott Kelby

The studio-photographer's cookbook. Lots of great recipes to get you started. Recommended by Ben Lucas.

The Moment It Clicks

Joe McNally

An insight into the human side of photography rather than the technical. Recommended by Ben Lucas.

Urban Code

Mikoleit and Pürckhauer

All about how to understand the language of cities in 100 quick lessons. If you're someone who is interested in street photography or architecture this is your handbook to urban visual communication.

The Ongoing Moment

Geoff Dyer

An in-depth book through the last century of photography about the perception of images, how they capture our world, how they relate to one another and the evolution of photographic themes. Recommended by Simon Bray.

Inside Photography: Ten Interviews with Editors

David Brittain and Clinton Cahill

The inner working of the art photography magazine is illuminated this collection of interviews and illustrations.

3. Living the Decisive Moment

Magnum Stories

Chris Boot (editor)

Go inside Magnum through 61 'photo story' master classes with photographers from the legendary photo collective.

Truth Needs No Ally 

Howard Chapnick

History, inspiration, biographies-a great intro to photojournalism. Recommended by Lauren Justice.

LIFE Photographers: What They Saw

John Loengard

Interviews with photographers from LIFE magazine. Recommended by Lauren Justice.

National Geographic On Assignment

Priit Vesilind

A look at how stories have evolved at National Geographic magazine. Recommended by Lauren Justice.

Photographs Not Taken

Will Steacy

A surprising book of true short stories from photographers about the pictures they saw but didn't take. Pocketable. Great for passing the time when you're waiting for something photographic to happen.

4. Embracing Film and Video

Directing the Documentary

Michael Rabiger

Documentary is the root of all cinema, so if you're thinking of getting into film making start here! Great sections about finding your voice, direction, and building your team.

DSLR Cinema

Kurt Lancaster

A great introduction book to cinematography with DSLRs, also covers gear. Recommended by Charles Yeager.

Camera Confidential

Christopher Parkinson

A handbook for cameramen and camerawomen. All go to proceeds to the Rory Peck Trust. Recommended by Slavik Boyechko.

In the Blink of An Eye

Walter Murch

What is editing all about? In his short but highly influential book, acclaimed Hollywood editor Walter Murch shares his simple, effective, and emotional editing process. Written for film editing, but equally interesting and applicable to photo editing.

The Wes Anderson Collection

Matt Zoller Seitz

A book that takes you through the evolution of Wes Anderson and his films-great for seeing where he started and how he grew into where he is today. Handwritten break downs of soundtracks, story boarding, thought processes, inspiration. Many interviews included. A good way to see how all the pieces of a film fit together and how initial styles can be strengthened and used throughout multiple films. Recommended by Lauren Justice.

5. Navigating the Perils of Post-Production

The DAM Book

Peter Krogh

Digital asset management for photographers. Everyone who makes more than 100 pictures a year should read this book. Recommended by Andrew Childress.

Photoshop Compositing Secrets

Matt Kloskowski

Compositing isn't really complicated. It's taking a lot of tiny steps, treating them like building blocks, and putting them together to make something great. This book goes over those fundamental building blocks. Recommended by Ben Lucas.

Publish Your Photography Book

Himes and Swanson

What the titles says! Everything you need to know to get your book into the world.

6. The Business of Image Making

Art/Work

Bhandari and Melber

Everything about working as an artist except how to make art. Essential reading if you want to build a healthy career and get your work seen.

The Business of Studio Photography

Edward R. Lilley

A good place to start for the starving artist who doesn't want to starve anymore. Recommended by Ben Lucas.

Rework and Remote

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

A lot of important life lessons for work put together into two short and easily digestible books. Favourite lesson: "The Tone is in your Fingers". Recommended by Harry Guinness and Andrew Childress, respectively.

Best Business Practices for Photographers

by John Harrington

Comprehensive tips and advice on the business side of photography. Recommended by Lauren Justice.

7. Understanding the Nature of Images

The Nature of Photographs: A Primer

Stephen Shore

A wonderfully illustrated guide to why and how the photographic medium works. Short and sweet.

What It Is

Lynda Barry

The best book about images, imagination, memory, and art that I have ever read. Richly illustrated and touching, this book is a personal, and practical, journey of discovery. Barry asks, but it's you who find the answer: What is that formless thing which gives things form? See also Picture This: The Near-sighted Monkey Book and Syllabus: Notes from an Accidental Professor

Camera Lucida

Roland Barthes

What It Is covers the same topic in a much more interesting and engaging way, but if you want to hold your weight when talking with art-school grads a quick read about Barthes' "punctum" (or the spirit of an image) will go a long way. Understanding punctum also helps to train your eye to look for the core of an image, and discern between images, quickly and effectively.

On Photography

by Susan Sontag

An essential, critical look at the aesthetic and moral problems of photography.

After Photography

Fred Ritchin

Now that we are one foot firmly into in the digital age, what is photography becoming? Is digital photography a fundamentally new medium?

Believing is Seeing

Errol Morris

Also an illustrated guide to understand how and why photographs work. Anything but short, still a fascinating read for those with an addiction to the mysteries of photography.
Capturing the Light: The Birth of Photography

by Roger Watson and Helen Rappaport

A history book about the invention of photography and the controversy of who really came up with it first! Recommended by Marie Gardiner.

Add Your Favourites

Do you have a favourite book about learning to make photos and video? Let us know!

Read More

To the Point: Interview With Daniel Alexander

This interview is an absolute pleasure. From drag queens to pop culture icons, Daniel Alexander mixes fashion, gender expression, and comic book illustration in a skillful and utterly fabulous manner. Sit for a spell and read about his influences, inspiration, stories about his present work, and where it's all going.

Daniel, thank you so much for the interview! Let's start from the top: What got you into illustration?

Illustration is something I have always been interested in for as long as I can remember. The initial interaction I had with it would be through comic books and the animated cartoons of the late 80's, leading into the 90's (predominantly X-Men). I would say exposure to these became intrinsic to the style of my work and the subject matter or muse upon which it is sometimes based. In conjunction with comic characters, classic illustrated movie posters (such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones) were always sources of inspiration, as well as the films and merchandise itself.

Daniel's childhood drawings of Wonder Woman and X-Men characters.

Who or what inspires your work?

I would credit Jim Lee, Alan Davis, Salvador Larroca, Marc Silvestri, Patrick Nagel, Thierry Perez and Richard Gray as being influential illustrators for me.

My work is a derivative mix of Bronze to Modern Age comic book characters, sci-fi vixens and no-nonsense power dressers. The subject matter depicted within my work is drawn from the international Drag/Club Kid scene, "Divas" (icons of television, music, pop culture) and generally anything else that takes my fancy; from the Queen of the country to the Queens of nightlife! I like to add a comic book or a sci-fi edge where possible with the appearance of blank eyes and occasional drips or otherworldly features.

Queen Elizabeth II as you've likely never seen her before.

Are you formally trained?

I have pursued Art and Design through various forms throughout my education and I was awarded 1:1 BA (Hons) in Illustration last year.

What is your creative process like?

My creative process is mostly organic, beginning with initial sketches and sometimes just the jotting down of ideas. Then, drafting the image and refining it until I am happy with it. Sometimes the final outcome will literally be from the efforts of a spontaneous splurge.

I tend to swap between sketchbooking and loose sheets depending on the final process required for the image, such as digital coloring, hand rendering, etc. If I can, I like to get one job done at a time and work my way through each one. Unless I am doing a set of images for the same collection or client.

Typically, what's your artistic weapon of choice?

My choice of stationery would be pencil, ball-point pen (biro), fine liners, felt-tips or markers, and ink. I sometimes use less conventional media such as bleach and nail varnish. Everything is hand-drawn regardless of digital coloring; if I am coloring digitally then I do so using Adobe Photoshop.

For how long have you worked as an illustrator, and is it your day job?

Not for very long. I have been putting work out for a while but I would technically only count myself as an illustrator for the last year and a bit or so. Illustration can be great as a day job but in practice can come with some instability (financial, frequency of work).

I haven't worked in-house or contractually yet. It's not something I would rule out. It's just things haven't gone that way so far.

Have you participated in gallery shows (or do you want to)?

Aside from my graduate showcase, I have yet to participate in any gallery shows. This is something I would love to do, but in the future when I would consider myself to have a greater breadth of work to showcase and be in a better position to really put on a show.

A great deal of your artwork explores gender expression. What led you to tackling the subject artistically?

Gender and the expression of it is something that has always been of interest to me. From a sociological point of view, the inherent view that there is a masculine and feminine identity that is transcribed and reinforced from birth, with any decidedly deviant behavior/expression being labelled as "other" and marginalized from mainstream society.

Illustration of Mathu Andersen from the Marco Marco LAFW show.

Of course, this has changed, is changing, is perhaps in a constant state of flux all over the world. Visually recording and creating representations based around the idea of gender allows me to express uncapped creativity; this can be from the makeup, hair and fashion to even the mood of the image.

I love your exploration of high, fabulous fashion in your work. What designers' lines have you got your eye on lately? 

I have my eye on everyone. However, I would mention the following: Christian Cowan-Sanluis, Elliot Joseph Rentz and Jay Briggs for their fabulous fashions. Also, always excited to see what Versace, The Blonds, Pam Hogg and Moschino are doing.

Have you ever met any of the subjects of your illustrations (whether pop stars or drag queens)? If so, have they seen your illustrative work?

Yes! I have met a number of those depicted within my work (currently, mainly Drag Queens) and they have seen my work either prior or post meeting.

The likenesses of your artwork are spot-on. Are faces, poses and such heavily referenced, or do you use light reference and focus more on designing a new figure for your purposes?

References are something I try to use directly less and less. They have their use but my aim now is to capture a moment and look of my own.

What are your current or future goals as an illustrator?

To continue with the type of projects I work on currently, like events and portraiture, as well as build up a solid base of published editorial work. In the future, I would love to be involved in a major campaign with a leading cosmetics brand across packaging and advertising, as well as to debut textile prints in a collaboration with a fashion label.

A small selection of products in Daniel's Society6 shop.

Any advice or words of wisdom for readers who wish to engage in the art world as you have?

Go for it! If it doesn't work out then at least you tried.

Things to remember: confidence in what you are doing rubs off on others, have a slightly thick skin as sometimes you just can't please everyone, and enjoy it!

Daniel's fantastic take on a glamazon version of Marge Simpson

Many thanks to Daniel sharing his work and experiences with us. I really look forward to seeing where his work goes in the near future and beyond. For more of Daniel's art, check out the links below:

• Daniel Alexander Illustration
• Instagram
• Society6 shop
• Facebook

Read More