Check Out NMA    Learn More About our Partnership
Close and Enjoy Drawabox Ad-free

Cylinders in boxes

8:42 PM, Tuesday February 22nd 2022

Hi !

I'm about 170 cylinders in the 250 cylinder challenge, so I've drawn a few cylinders in boxes. At this point, I can tell when the mistakes I've made building my box make drawing a cylinder inside of it impossible; that is, when there are no square planes in which to draw the ellipses. In these cases, it is often impossible to draw an ellipse that both fits inside the corners of the plane and has a correct minor axis.

I'm still completing these cylinders of course, but in these cases where I have to choose between getting the minor axis right or having my ellipse touch the corners of the plane, which should I prioritize in order to get the most out of this exercise ?

Thanks in advance !

Report
1 users agree
4:45 PM, Wednesday February 23rd 2022

That is perfectly normal - rather than seeing it as an exercise where your goal is to create perfect cylinders, instead look at the cylinders themselves as a part of the analysis (like the line extensions), where we're checking how correct the proportions for the box itself were, given that we want them to have ends that are proportionally square in 3D space, as mentioned at the bottom of this section.

5:49 PM, Wednesday February 23rd 2022

got it, thanks !

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.
Staedtler Pigment Liners

Staedtler Pigment Liners

These are what I use when doing these exercises. They usually run somewhere in the middle of the price/quality range, and are often sold in sets of different line weights - remember that for the Drawabox lessons, we only really use the 0.5s, so try and find sets that sell only one size.

Alternatively, if at all possible, going to an art supply store and buying the pens in person is often better because they'll generally sell them individually and allow you to test them out before you buy (to weed out any duds).

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