Perception issue is making proportions and symmetry difficult - help?

Been steadily using Line of Action since October / November of last year and have experience with figure drawing before that. I see noticeable improvement in my anatomy and gestures, but one thing that escapes me no matter how hard I try is proportions, and the ability to understand things in 3D. I've already attempted / am attempting Draw A Box with little progress in this area.

I want to be extremely clear that this is a perception issue and not one of knowledge or experience, I have gotten my eyes checked and it isn't a problem with my eyesight. However, I've so far been unable to find any resources or solutions to the problem; I have received a lot of suggestions, but none have worked, and most didn't address the fact that this is a perception issue (vs just studying harder, not knowing the correct forms, etc).

In the case of figures and faces, this makes things like the length of the legs, the size of the head, and so on near-impossible. When I draw things with a lot of foreshortening, I find that parts of the person that appear to be moving toward the camera are things that I draw flat and downward-facing instead. With faces, feature placement and the other eye are basically impossible.

A lot of the time, it feels like I just can't see what I'm doing. I do not have aphantasia or a vision problem. I've explored other theories about what's wrong (I do have ADHD and my perception issue is likely a result of it, but I'm unable to find resources for art with this).

Does anyone have this problem, and what did you do about it?

Hi! I have ADHD as well and also have had a simmilar issue when it comes to perception of depth. For me, what helps is using "anchor" points. I try to check what a feature's position is relative to another position. So for instance in the case of foreshortning a person going towards the camera, I'd try to use things in the bg and compare and contrast with the figure in front. For faces/feature placements, I've found the Loomis method extremely helpful! Here are some videos that I watched repeatedly to drill it into my head :

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For perspective, what also may help is using grids to get a sense of position or perspective rulers that are available in many digital art software. You could even quickly throw something together in Blender and use that as a reference (I've done this a few times for complicated layouts).

Without any photos, I can't give more advice on specific areas but I would say one last thing. For me, I have to make sure I pause drawing every few seconds to correct any problems. I find it better to do this every few seconds instead of when I finish drawing a feature so I can correct small mistakes before they balloon out.

Good morning, couldntthinkofaname.

I don't have too much ADHD, though I actually do have high-functioning autism, therefore, I may try to give you the simplest solution to your perception problem possible. That problem is that I take an image, screen cap that image with Shift+Cmd+4, and dupcliate it, rotate them in 3 different ways, but flip them in 3 different ways(horizontally and/or vertically), but rotate them as well, all just to get the clearest idea on how an artist sees the graphic shapes and lines, even if it's just relationships (proportions and angles). To give you some constructive criticism, why don't you please try out this littlest tip or trick?

As a result, you can, shall, and will be able to sharpen your observational skills, therefore, having fun with your drawing process altogether. For most details and info, kindly look into some greatest art teaching books on perception by Dr. Betty Edwards (Artist Within, and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain) Even if they all start off with the most basic pre-instruction drawings, they have the most extremely important exercises, like upside-down drawing, vase/face drawing, and mostly, pure contour and modified contour drawings.

My hat's off to you, and I hope you've found most of these extremely and absolutely encouraging and educational.