Check Out NMA    Learn More About our Partnership
Close and Enjoy Drawabox Ad-free
View Full Submission View Parent Comment
0 users agree
6:30 PM, Monday November 23rd 2020

Your assessment there is more or less correct - the ellipse inside would need to be shifted back slightly, and in order to maintain the minor axis' alignment to the vanishing point, its orientation would have to shift a little as well. The degree does remain the same, however. I've done a little analysis of your image here. The X's mark the center of each ellipse, and the points along the outside represent the minor and major axes. The fainter red ellipse is drawn around the blue ellipse's center (no offsetting), and the green one is offset correctly.

While it is true that Drawabox focuses on 'close enough', this was technically an unnecessary mistake on my part, so I'll keep it in mind when I get around to rerecording the wheel challenge demo.

6:09 PM, Tuesday November 24th 2020

Hey! Knowing how busy your schedule is, I really appreciate that you responded to my post. I must admit that I don't understand why the orientation of the smaller elipse would have to shift slightly - I thought that both their minor axis' would lie on the same line.

I flipped through Scott Robertson's ''How to draw'' book in search of answers. I couldn't find any explanations (maybe I will once I actually get around to studying the book), but I did a little experiment. I placed my elipse guides on the wheel of the car on page 183 to find that both elipses have the same minor axis - or maybe I wasn't precise enough.

Anyways, I think I'm kinda missing the forest for the trees here by going into such depths for such a small piece of information. I should probably let it go for now and eventually revisit this topic when I'm equipped with more knowledge and a fresh mindset.

3:56 PM, Wednesday November 25th 2020

The ellipse was moved back and up slightly - that movement upwards means that the angle of that minor axis, in order to still converge towards the same vanishing point, would have to be reoriented slightly.

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Ellipse Master Template

Ellipse Master Template

This recommendation is really just for those of you who've reached lesson 6 and onwards.

I haven't found the actual brand you buy to matter much, so you may want to shop around. This one is a "master" template, which will give you a broad range of ellipse degrees and sizes (this one ranges between 0.25 inches and 1.5 inches), and is a good place to start. You may end up finding that this range limits the kinds of ellipses you draw, forcing you to work within those bounds, but it may still be worth it as full sets of ellipse guides can run you quite a bit more, simply due to the sizes and degrees that need to be covered.

No matter which brand of ellipse guide you decide to pick up, make sure they have little markings for the minor axes.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.