Home Forums Explore Media Drawing and Sketching The Classroom Basic 101: Class 3 – Drawing Cubic Objects

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  • #988292
    JayD
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        Basic 101
        Class 3
        Drawing Cubic Objects

        Materials:

        For this class you can use the same number two pencil from the first two classes or, if you want, go ahead and incorporate your pencil of choice.

        The Cube:

        A cube has a top, a bottom, and four sides. /Thousands of objects have the cube at their very core. Cubes will not always be perfectly equilateral. They can be short, long or tall. They can be boxes, they can be found in animals and in churches. Cubes are everywhere. Look at figure 1.

        This is a sketch that I completed in about 15 minutes or so—it is a graphite and colored pencil drawing. Notice that its main components are cubes. To create this sketch, I took two photos printed out from my computer—I print out all my images on photo paper as I notice that I get a sharper image. Both images are in color although sometimes I will print out a third gray scale image. However you can take a piece of hard red plastic and lay it over your color photo and the colors will wash away and you can clearly see your values. One of the color photos I place on my table as the reference photo. The other photo is placed on my light table and I backlight the image so that I can see elements of the picture that I would otherwise miss.

        Next I just did a sketch starting first with a loose drawing to determine the basic geometric shapes. The shapes are drawn over and over again until I get the shape that I am looking for. In this case the core components are cubes. See if you can find the cubes in this image.

        In this sketch there are four cubes clearly represented of varying shapes and sizes. Also because this is only a sketch I don’t need to strictly enforce the laws of perspective. If I want to develop this picture further I simply take a sheet of tracing paper, lay it over the sketch and trace the sketch lines onto the tracing paper—I can then make my perspective corrections onto the tracing paper prior to transfer—I use a heavy vellum to do this.. I then will rub graphite on the opposite side and transfer my corrected drawing to the “Good paper “ and then will proceed in whatever media that I want. You may also do the transfer via graphite paper, light table, or by taping the paper to a glass door or window and using it as a “natural light table”. You can also transfer by grid or by compass (which I do sometimes.)

        Keeping these procedures in mind the class assignment is going to be a very short one. The idea is to draw….draw…draw… Below I have provided several examples of images that contain cubes. Some are very simple but repetitive. Choose whichever one of these you would like to draw OR you can choose an image of your own liking. Do the following:

        1. Take a look closely at your chosen image and, in your mind, visualize the cubes that are contained in your picture. DO NOT visualize squares—visualize the cube as a three-dimensional object—the picture you are drawing is, after all, a picture of something three-dimensional.

        2. Relative to the image, begin to flesh out the cubes on your paper—draw the entire cube or cubes as you see them.

        3. Note their relationship to each other. Make sure that your proportions are correct. When you draw the cubes draw lightly restating your lines over and over until you get the image positioned an proportioned as you see fit. Start to flesh out the rest of the picture.

        4. Darken those lines that you wish to keep—some lines on the three dimensional cube may not be seen in the picture that you draw so those lines DO NOT have to be darkened.

        5. Add the detail to your image loosely again restating the lines until you are satisfied.

        6. Once your sketch is complete, transfer the sketch to your vellum (tracing paper)—correct for perspective IF necessary.

        7. Using your preferred method, transfer the image to your “good paper”.

        8. Detail and fine-tune your image.

        The beauty of this method is that you can take several images and create a composite image. You have a scene in a room, for example, that has no people but you have a sketch of a person who might fit in nicely—the solution is to transfer the person to your room drawing (adjusting for scale of course) and paint away.

        For now, just concentrate on the cubes. If you have a drawing that you are working on and you do not have a lot of time, use that drawing for your exercise this week. However, this week I would also like you to take your sketchbook with you wherever you go and when you sketch—look for the cubes both man-made and in nature and see how many you can locate. Feel free to share your sketching with the rest of the class so that we may all learn from your experiences. Good luck and happy drawing!

        Note from the Editor: This thread continues with the recent posts. The older posts can be found in this closed thread:
        https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228822

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        catmandolin.deviantart.com

        #1128748
        lajale
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            I did some cube exercises in the last days (books, buildungs …).

            Here is my first assignment for class 3 – the silo

            I`ll try the dice now.

            Thanks for looking.

            Greetings from Germany
            Chris

            #1128749
            lajale
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                And here are the dice (or dices?):

                Greetings from Germany
                Chris

                #1128758
                netta13542
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                    Class three assignments

                    Ok around I thought I was drafting for a minute with the silo I was using a ruler and a compass but I went back over and darkened the lines and transfered it to another piece of paper using tracing paper. The dice I freehanded those i couldnt see the cube shape but I pictured a wierd looking y and thats how I got the dice.

                    #1128531
                    Anonymous

                        Very good job, Chris :clap::clap:.
                        As to “dices?”, no: “dice” is the plural, the singular is – purely linguistically – “die”, but very often “dice” is used for both the singular and plural :confused:.
                        You did very well in this class, please move on to class 4 :thumbsup:.

                        #1128532
                        Anonymous

                            Netta – Good job :clap:.
                            Two remarks:
                            — the right dice does not look a real cube, it is too broad. There is no simple geometric to construct it correctly :lol:, just use your sense of proportion.

                            — not about drawing but … don’t hold your camera at an angle towards your paper when taking photos. Hold it that the “line of sight” is square to the paper. As you did now, there is a perspective distortion in your drawing. Yes, indeed, “farther away looks smaller“: the back of your paper is farther away than the front, and all the lines that you carefully drew “vertical” are now slanting in the photo :(.

                            This class is the cornerstone of the foundation classes. I suggest you do another exercise here :thumbsup:.

                            #1128759
                            netta13542
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                                Class three hey around I made some baby blocks and a book stand.

                                #1128533
                                Anonymous

                                    Netta – Good progress :thumbsup:.
                                    A few remarks:
                                    First of all, as I said already, hold your camera straight to the drawing. Look how the side of the paper of the book stand drawing is completely askew. How do I know whether you drew the vertical lines vertically? Because that is – lacking the knowledge of how exactly you drew it – my second remark. In traditional, academic styles, vertical lines are always drawn / painted vertically. And IF you choose to draw in “3PP”, it should follow the principle “further away looks smaller“. We look down on the baby blocks, so the bottom is farther away and should be smaller than the top, not as you drew it. Again supposing that it is not the result of holding the camera at an angle :(.
                                    A remark that holds true whatever how you took the picture is this, it is more of an aesthetic nature: don’t imagine the 2 VP’s (left and right) so close together, put one of them far outside the paper (you can – learn to – eyeball the VL’s, it is not critical if far away). As you did there is an unpleasant and unnatural sharp corner at the front.

                                    Keep up the good work :thumbsup:.

                                    #1128766
                                    NickyBlade
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                                        Sorry for being so slow completing the classes. Life gets in the way of my happy fun time. lol.

                                        #1128534
                                        Anonymous

                                            Good job, Nicky:clap:.

                                            #1128769
                                            halhen
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                                                I set out to do this exercise from life. First, here is a photo of the subject. (My wife kindly cleaned up the mess on the floor before I was finished with the. I tried to recreate the boxes to the best of my abilities and shaded from there. That’s why there’s an extra label on the top box in the final drawing — I didn’t notice that I had turned that box around.)

                                                It took a couple of tries to get the sketch right. I had to really focus to project the boxes onto an imaginary 2D surface in front of my eyes. After a while the high-school trigonometry — at least what’s left of it — started to kick in. To measure an angle, it is sometimes easier to find the right angle triangle and measure the lines; especially when one is eyeballing it using a pen and a thumb. When the sketch didn’t look right, I made sure to backtrack to find the error and redo whatever needed to be redone from there (or tossing the sketch if it was beyond saving).

                                                To correct the perspective, I started by figuring out that, since I could see the top of the top lid, the eye level was slighly above the subject. From there, I was fairly easy to find vantage points. Particularly the lines at the bottom were too horizontal, at least relative to the 2PP.

                                                After having transferred the sketch by applying an 8B pencil to the back and tracing the sketch on top of the final paper, I started shading. I found some errors, in particular the left, front side of the top lid which I had corrected towards the wrong VP. The bottom angles of the bottom box were too horizontal, not sure why. They seem reasonable in the perspective corrected sketch, but it may have been an error in the sketch transfer. Anyway, I corrected the wrong edges on the final drawing at the best of my capabilities by bringing out the ruler and correcting on the final drawing.

                                                (And, yes, I cheated a bit in the rendering. The lines on the middle box are not drawn from the subject, neither is the half circles in the bottom drawer there.)

                                                Lessons learned:

                                                  [*]If there are useful guides on the subject, use them all. (I should have used the parallell patterns on the drawers to ensure the correct position and proportions of the other subjects)
                                                  [*]If it difficult to estimate an angle from horizontal or vertical, try finding a right triangle and measure that instead.

                                                Looking forward to having any errors pointed out to me.

                                                C&C always welcome - Henrik
                                                I want to meet a guy named Art. I'd take him to a museum, hang him on the wall, criticize him, and leave.

                                                #1128535
                                                Anonymous

                                                    Good job, Henrik :clap:. You got the perspective right (always very important for rectangular objects) :thumbsup:.

                                                    If it difficult to estimate an angle from horizontal or vertical

                                                    It depends on the person, for some people estimating angles is easier than distances. A trick to fix an angle in memory between observing and jotting down is to name it as if reading the clock (small hand).
                                                    Keep up the good work :thumbsup:.

                                                    #1128770
                                                    halhen
                                                    Default

                                                        Thanks, and thanks for the tip. Would you like another box drawing from me?

                                                        C&C always welcome - Henrik
                                                        I want to meet a guy named Art. I'd take him to a museum, hang him on the wall, criticize him, and leave.

                                                        #1128536
                                                        Anonymous

                                                            … Would you like another box drawing from me?

                                                            Class 3 is IMO the most fundamental of the entry classes. I think it is good to draw another exercise, but not a box, something where the “cubic” character is less obvious. There are some photos in the first postings of the thread that illustrate the idea. Choose from your own environment if you like :thumbsup:.
                                                            :wave:

                                                            #1128771
                                                            halhen
                                                            Default

                                                                Råda Säteri, a 18th century mansion in the area.

                                                                Reference:

                                                                Sketch from life:

                                                                Perspective corrected sketch, partially measured from the reference photo as the slopes on particularly the gable wall were too horizontal.

                                                                The VP:s were far, far away on this one. I guess the VPs move farther to the sides as one gets farther away from the subject?

                                                                And the final drawing

                                                                Something feels off, but I can’t figure out what. The building seems baloon-ish. There are two things I found working against me: getting the verticals vertical, and the right-most VP being too far away to acually find with my rulers. Maybe one of those lead me astray? :confused:

                                                                C&C always welcome - Henrik
                                                                I want to meet a guy named Art. I'd take him to a museum, hang him on the wall, criticize him, and leave.

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