by Sketchbook's Perspective Guides are the simplest of the serious perspective aids and, on desktop, one of the few with a fisheye mode. This guide covers all four guide types, the lock and snap controls that trip people up, and how to get a lens-accurate setup from the grids here into Sketchbook, which has no notion of a lens itself.
Finding the tool
The Perspective Guides icon lives in the toolbar; on a phone held in portrait, scroll the toolbar sideways to reach it. Tapping it opens the guide chooser: 1 Point, 2 Point, 3 Point and, on Sketchbook Pro for desktop, Fisheye. The chosen guide draws over the canvas with a blue horizon line and the fans of lines from each vanishing point. On desktop the P key invokes the tool and D toggles snapping in older versions; check the current hotkey list in your build.
Placing the vanishing points
Drag a vanishing point to move it; the horizon follows the horizon points, so moving them up or down changes the eye level. If a point refuses to move, it is locked: tap the lock icon to unlock it, drag, and lock it again once the setup is right, so a stray touch cannot shift the camera mid-drawing. Points can be dragged off the canvas after zooming out, and for anything but the widest views they should be; two points inside a canvas is a 16 mm lens.
Three-point adds a point above or below the horizon on the vertical through the middle; move it further away for a gentle tilt and closer for a dramatic one.
Snap
The Snap toggle decides whether the guides steer the pen. On, a stroke is held parallel to the horizon, perpendicular to it, or on a line to a vanishing point, whichever is closest to the way you started it, so edges come out straight and converging. Off, the guides are a picture under the drawing and the pen is free. The show/hide icons hide the guide lines while leaving snapping active, which is the setting for finishing a drawing over an invisible grid.
Fisheye (desktop Pro)
The Fisheye guide is a five-point curvilinear grid: vanishing points left, right, top, bottom and centre, with the lines drawn as arcs. It is the same geometry as the 5-point grid here, and it makes Sketchbook one of the few painting apps that can snap to a curved grid. Wide interiors, cockpit views and 180° establishing shots are its use; keep the centre point on what the viewer is looking at.
Mobile extras and saving
On mobile, guides persist between canvases, and there are controls for grid density and opacity and for an infinite versus constrained grid, the latter with green handles that limit how far the lines extend. On desktop Pro the vanishing-point positions are saved in Sketchbook's TIFF format only, not in PSD; if you hand a file to another app, the guides do not travel with it.
A lens-accurate setup from this site
Sketchbook does not know what lens its vanishing points imply. Set the camera on the 2-point, 3-point or fisheye grid here, switch on the vanishing-point markers, export a transparent PNG at the canvas size, and import it into Sketchbook as a layer at low opacity. Then open the matching Perspective Guide and drag Sketchbook's points onto the exported marks. The snapping now follows a real 24, 35 or 50 mm view, and the grid layer's one-metre squares give the sizes the guides lack.
Common problems
Point will not move. Unlock it.
Strokes curve or kink. Snap is on and the stroke started between two families; start each stroke clearly along one edge, or turn Snap off for that pass.
Guides vanished when I opened a PSD. PSD does not carry them; keep the grid PNG layer, or re-create the guide.
Related
Fisheye perspective grid · Procreate perspective grid · Krita perspective assistant · curvilinear perspective explained · perspective drawing tools compared
Questions
How do I use perspective guides in Sketchbook?
Tap the Perspective Guides icon in the toolbar (on a phone in portrait, scroll the toolbar to find it), choose 1 Point, 2 Point, 3 Point or Fisheye, and drag the vanishing points where you want them. Turn Snap on to have strokes follow the guide lines, or leave it off to draw freehand over them.
Why can't I move a vanishing point in Sketchbook?
It is locked. Tap the lock icon to unlock it, then drag. Locking is there so a finished setup does not drift while you draw; lock it again when the points are placed.
Does Sketchbook have fisheye perspective?
Sketchbook Pro on desktop does: the Fisheye guide has five vanishing points, left, right, top, bottom and centre, the classic five-point curvilinear grid. Mobile versions have 1-, 2- and 3-point only.
What does Snap do in Sketchbook's perspective guides?
With Snap on, strokes are constrained to run parallel to the horizon, perpendicular to it, or toward a vanishing point, whichever is nearest to the stroke's direction. With Snap off the guides are only a visual reference.
Are the vanishing points saved with the file?
On desktop Pro, vanishing-point positions are saved in Sketchbook's TIFF format, not in PSD. On mobile the guides persist between canvases. If you need the setup elsewhere, export a grid from this site as a PNG and keep it as a layer.
Can I move a vanishing point off the canvas?
Yes: zoom out so there is space around the canvas and drag the point into it. For natural lenses at least one point is usually off-canvas.
A new lesson and a new grid, about once a month.
Each lesson arrives by email before it goes on the site, with the grid it was drawn on and the link to open it. Subscribers also get both free starter packs and the subscriber price on the paid ones. Never more than two emails a month; one click to leave.
Handled by Kit on our behalf. Your address is used for this letter and nothing else — see the privacy page.