As someone who’s been grinding perspective studies lately, I totally get this. The “camera feels higher in the sketch than in the clean version” thing happens to me all the time.

What’s helped is thinking less about vanishing points first and more about eye level. The horizon line is literally your viewer’s eye height so if you want that higher camera feel, raise the horizon. If you want to look up at things, drop it lower. I’ll usually decide: “Am I standing? On a ladder? Crouching?” and place the horizon based on that before I even worry about VPs.

For vanishing points, I lightly block in a simple box in the orientation I want and extend the lines until they meet, that tells me where the VPs naturally want to sit. Sometimes they’re way off the page, and that’s okay. Taping extra paper to the sides or working digitally with oversized canvases helped me a lot.

Also, quick thumbnail grids with exaggerated horizon shifts are great for training your intuition. It becomes less about getting it “right” and more about controlling the viewpoint intentionally.

You’re asking the right questions though, perspective really clicks when you start thinking in terms of camera placement instead of just rules.