Lecture Notes: Drawing Ellipses

Importance of Drawing Ellipses

• Ellipses are crucial for:
  • Drawing objects like car wheels, stereo knobs, eyeballs.
  • Representing elements in the environment and architecture.

Techniques for Drawing Ellipses

Training Your Arm

• Practice by filling up a page with ellipses.
• Vary the degree (width/narrowness) of ellipses.
• Draw clean ellipses with minimal overlapping lines.
• Avoid "hairy" lines (erratic, multiple lines) for clarity.

Anatomy of an Ellipse

• Minor Axis: Divides the ellipse into symmetrical halves.
  • Aligns with the direction of the arm movement.
  • When folded on the minor axis, the two halves should align perfectly.
• Major Axis: Divides the ellipse along the widest dimension.
  • Not crucial for sketching; focus mainly on the minor axis.

Practical Tips

• Rotate the pad to align the minor axis with your arm's direction.
• Use folding technique to verify the correct minor axis.

Exercises and Practice

Page 18 Review

• Fill up a page with ellipses.
• Aim for no flat spots and a clean line.
• Focus on identifying the minor axis.

Page 19 Exercises

• Draw ellipses treating them like cylinders:

  • Draw two straight, parallel lines.
  • Divide the lines and align ellipses with the minor axis.
  • Ensure tangency to the lines.

• Draw a line and practice placing ellipses of varying widths:

  • Align naturally with your arm.
  • Identify and draw on the minor axis.

Materials and Practice Recommendations

• Use cheap paper or copy paper for practice.
• Medium choice (pencil, ballpoint, etc.) doesn't matter.
• Consider using unforgiving media (e.g., Sharpie, Copic multi-liner) to improve craftsmanship.
• Build muscle memory for recognizing and drawing on the minor axis.

Summary

• Mastering ellipses is essential before moving on to perspective drawing.
• Developing the skill to identify and draw ellipses on the minor axis is critical.
• Practice extensively to become comfortable with these techniques.