What the Drawing Guide does
The Drawing Guide is Procreate's on-canvas ruler system. Its Perspective mode lets you place up to three vanishing points; with Assisted Drawing turned on, any line you draw on that layer automatically aligns to those points. It does the geometry so you can focus on the design — no physical ruler, no manual ruling.
How to turn it on
- Open Actions (the wrench icon) → Canvas.
- Toggle Drawing Guide on, then tap Edit Drawing Guide.
- At the bottom, choose Perspective (the other modes are 2D Grid, Isometric and Symmetry).
- Tap anywhere on the canvas to add a vanishing point. Tap again for a second or third; tap a point to delete it.
- Use the colour slider and Opacity/Thickness sliders so the guide is visible but not distracting. Tap Done.
Turn on Assisted Drawing
Placing points alone doesn't snap your strokes — you must enable assistance per layer. Open the layer's menu (tap the layer, then tap it again) and turn on Drawing Assist. A small “Assisted” label appears under the layer name. Now every stroke on that layer snaps to perspective. Toggle it off to draw freehand on the same layer. Learn more about layers in Procreate layers explained.
One, two and three vanishing points
- One point — head-on views, interiors, roads receding straight ahead.
- Two points — the corner view of a building; the most-used architectural setup.
- Three points — add a point high above or far below for dramatic tall-building views.
The horizontal line through your points is the horizon — your eye level. Place it first, because it controls whether the viewer looks up at or down on the scene.
QuickLine and QuickShape
Two more tools pair perfectly with perspective. QuickLine: draw a stroke and hold the pencil at the end — Procreate snaps it perfectly straight, and you can rotate it to an exact angle. QuickShape: draw a rough rectangle or ellipse and hold to make it geometric. Together with the guide, these give clean, accurate construction without a single physical ruler.
Common problems and fixes
- Lines won't snap — Drawing Assist is off for that layer. Turn it on in the layer menu.
- Everything looks distorted — vanishing points are too close together. Drag them farther apart, often off-canvas.
- Guide is too busy — lower the guide's opacity and thickness in Edit Drawing Guide.
- I want one freehand line — toggle Drawing Assist off on the layer, draw, then back on.
- Verticals look wrong — in one- and two-point perspective, verticals stay vertical; only use a third point when you intend dramatic vertical convergence.
Put it to use
Now that perspective is set, apply it: draw buildings in perspective, sketch a room interior in one-point, or work through the full architecture workflow. Need clean liners? Grab a set from the architecture brushes tag or browse free brushsets.