The Shapes of Things
Drawing Art Lessons 2

The following lesson is an excerpt from "The Shapes of Things" Drawing Art Lessons course that will be available soon.

Cylinders and Ellipses

I’m sure you can think of many things that are cylinder-shaped. I immediately think of fire hydrants, Aunt Marge’s cooking pots and Uncle Burt’s top hat, to name just a few.

I’m also sure you have a pretty good grasp of what a cylinder is.

Spaghetti-O’s and other cylinders

In this drawing art lesson, however, I am going to ask you to think of cylinders a bit differently.

Imagine a simple cylinder – like that out-of-date can of Spaghetti-O’s in Aunt Marge’s cabinet. I want you to imagine a string running straight through the very center of the can of Spaghetti-O’s.

Not surprisingly, we call this the centerline of the cylinder and in my diagram I label it CL. (We will be putting the centerline to use later as we talk about ellipses.)

For now, just remember that no matter how we turn the can, the centerline always goes through the center of it. That’s a constant.

Circles and Ellipses

What changes is how the lid appears on the top of our can.

When we look directly at the top of the can, it, of course, looks like a circle. If we begin to rotate the can, the circle becomes an ellipse (oval) that gets narrower and narrower until it reaches a point where all we see is a straight line for the top.

This transformation from a circle to an ellipse happens with anything that is a circle or has a circle in it, like a cereal bowl, a bicycle wheel or that round hole that Uncle Burt accidentally drilled through the kitchen table.

I mention all this, because beginners to these drawing art lessons often have trouble with subjects containing ellipses or they may completely avoid painting subjects containing them. That obviously limits the kind of subjects beginners allow themselves to draw or paint.

If you think you might one day like to paint a fountain in Rome, draw anything with wheels or maybe do a still life with a vase, wine bottle, bowl or even a lava lamp, then continue reading.

The last two things I want you to remember about ellipses are:
1. The ends of an ellipse are always at least slightly rounded; they never come to a point.
2. The long dimension of an ellipse is perpendicular to the centerline.

Using Our Knowledge of Ellipses on Symmetrical Objects

As it happens, our new understanding of cylinders and ellipses can be used on some non-cylinders, as well.

Suppose, as part of a drawing art lesson, I was doing a painting in which an ornate vase was prominently featured. Since the vase is symmetrical, one of the challenges is to get the curves to look the same on both edges of the vase.

After I establish where the vase is going to be in my painting, the next thing I might do is draw the vase’s centerline on my canvas. Then I could draw perpendicular lines to indicate where the top and bottom ellipses of the vase would be.

Wherever I place these perpendicular lines, they allow me to measure from the centerline to the right and left edges of the vase to be sure they are approximately equal.

(Again, you can get a detailed explanation of how to visually measure using a pencil, brush or piece of paper in the Art Tips section of BeginningArtist.com.)

Now, admittedly, I wouldn’t necessarily have to put in all of the perpendicular lines I indicated on the illustration in this art lesson. Instead of the line that I used to establish the widest point on the vase, I could just have measured with my brush handle and put a mark to indicate those points.

It’s really up to me whether I want to use the perpendicular lines or not and, if so, how many I want to use.

Ideally, I would just sketch in the vase without using a centerline or long dimension lines. I would see the edges of the vase clearly and my hand would be able to draw it perfectly.

This isn’t always the case, however. Using these lines is a great aid when I am having trouble getting the edges the way I want them.

Where the long dimension line of an ellipse (also called the long axis) comes in most handy is when I actually need to draw an ellipse.

Look at the top of the vase.

The centerline divides the top ellipse in half one way and the long dimension (long axis) line divides it in half the other way. As I draw the top, I can use the long axis to make sure the curve of the ellipse above this line is the same as the curve below the line.

I can use the centerline in the same way.

As I draw I visually make sure the half of the ellipse to the right of the centerline looks the same as the half to the left.

The idea is to do a quick visual comparison as I draw.

I hope you've enjoyed these excerpts from the complete The Shapes of Things course that will be available soon.
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