Berlin Looking South - Let's Get a Little Technical

Whenever I do high-rise buildings or tower blocks I need to be more structured and stay closer to the rules of accurate perspective drawing to make them look right and not somehow clumsily wrong.

Whereas otherwise I handle the rules of perspective rather intuitively, here I work with a loosely defined vanishing point do determine weather a horizontal feature such as a row of windows goes up or down towards the horizon. Therefore it is helpful to draw a set of lines across the façade (here in red), which will act as guides for the more detailed fenestration.

Now I have reached Friedrichstadt district, a baroque era city extension that is characterized by its very rectangular street layout. Those regular building blocks, similar to the Manhattan grid, are just perfect for a super dynamic perspective that makes all the parallel streets converge towards the horizon.

Step 1: I define the streets by simple volumes.

Step 2: every block gets its individuality by picking out the characteristic buildings.