25 wheel challenge - concentric elipses
5:12 PM, Sunday November 22nd 2020
Dear Drawabox community,
yesterday I watched the how to draw a wheel video by Uncomfortable and one thing started bothering me. At around the 6 minute mark Uncomfortable started talking about concentric elipses.
So, if we are drawing a wheel we want our elipses to represent circles in 3D space, right? But if two elipses share the same center (on a flat, 2D page), one of them does not represent a circle in 3D space. Here's why:
By sharing the same center (and degree, since it is on the same plane), the smaller elipse would fit perfectly inside the bigger one, creating no foreshortening. If there is no foreshortening, one of the elipses cannot represent a circle in 3D space.
To prove my hypothesis, I drew two perfect concentric circles with a drawing compass (here's the picture https://imgur.com/a/nZ6Rvba).
I proceeded to tape this piece of paper on my door and took a photo of it at an angle - now our circles have become elipses since they are in perspective (here's the picture https://imgur.com/a/AYiez2T). The foreshortening is very obvious here.
I then tried adding a minor axis to the two elipses by eyeballing it (I do not know of a mathematically reliable way of doing this, but I think I wasn't off by too much) - here's the picture: https://imgur.com/a/voLmeuq - you can see that the two elipses share the same minor axis but they both have a different major axis, which means they cannot have the same center (on the flat 2D page).
I realise this is very nitpicky of me, but I can't help it. I still feel like doing concentric elipses in a wheel kinda flattens it out.
This is preety much as far as my understanding goes regarding this topic (please let me know if I was wrong anywhere up to this point). I am however super curious about how one could draw a completely accurate wheel (perfect placement of elipses).
I feel like I could draw a free-floating wheel by reverse-engineering the last image I attached - if I knew how to draw a perfect square in perspective (which I don't xD). Drawing a wheel that conforms to the other masses of the car is an entirely different kind of beast because the box containing the cylinder cannot be arbitrary (my brain hurts even thinking about how to approach this).
So yeah, I've been long enough. If you know about any learning resources regarding this topic please let me know. And lastly, this is just for my personal interest, I know that the Drawabox course won't hold me to this insane standard - close enough is what we aim for here ;).
Cheers,
MisterSpades
P.S. Uncomfortable, if you are reading this I want to let you know that I have not started drawing the wheels yet, I'm waiting to get a pass on lesson 6 like a good boy :D