How to Draw a Cylinder

[@LagMasterSam]

9:40 - The ellipses become more circular the further away they are because your viewing angle relative to their surface is approaching 90. A circle turned at an angle directly in front of you will look elliptical, but the same circle at the same angle, but moved 20 feet to the right, could appear like it's not even turned away from you.

[@Liezuli]

Can't believe I accidentally skipped this part. Definitely gonna take my time with this.

[@OneTimeCrazy]

lmfao that box you used to make the cylinder is so confusing every time I looked at it I saw it in a different perspective

[@_fabiolaborges]

this is why line weight matters xD

[@enoleiflow7507]

Even he was confused at first, when the image loaded.

[@LearnerChess]

Really?!

[@juanmiguellopezbarea8960]

Hey, you probably know, but just in case, you can use lazy nezumi to draw straight lines instead of using shift in photoshop which messes up if you have pressure sensitivity on your brush, it makes you end up having to draw the same line over and over until you get your thickness right.

[@Uncomfortable]

Thanks! I did know about that, but I've developed this really weird relationship with the whole shift-clicking approach. I hate it to the depths of my soul, but at the same time I kind of like the results where it starts off thick and tapers out, then gets thick again on the other side (due to drawing the line twice, once for each end point). At the same time, it fills me with indescribable rage every time.

[@juanmiguellopezbarea8960]

Hehe, yeah. By the way, you did a great job putting together the draw a box page! Thanks. I read Scott Robertson books, but they are super dense, and even though I use his stuff now and then I didn't get to incorporate this kind of constructional drawing practice on my daily routine until I came across your site and became inspired by it. Great job.

[@Uncomfortable]

Thanks! Glad you like it.

[@Renee11123]

Thank you! This helped me understand the nature of elispes and how they're constructed. 👌

[@LearnerChess]

"Cut! Perfect!!" ~ Ed Wood.

[@saviorofseals5111]

I really think that you need to start scripting these videos: it's much easier to follow your lesson and the like online due to their nature. Just a piece of advice, because despite how good your advice is, it's hard to follow. The content is good, it's just structured poorly.

[@Uncomfortable]

+SealsMelt I definitely agree with you - it's why I generally avoid doing videos with voice over, and opt for written content. Scripting them is certainly an option, but I'm not yet sure it's worth doing, as opposed to sticking to written form.

[@anyakeyes1716]

it's worth doing. I learn better by observing rather than by reading. I appreciate all the free content and advice you put out but if you're going to put any amount of time into making the videos, make them easier to follow. I feel like if you were to make the content scripted and more concise it would serve a wider range of students. You clearly have a ton of knowledge and willing to share it. So I'm not trying to be mean here just voicing my interest in better structured video lessons from you.

[@whade62000]

@@Uncomfortable I WANT to like Drawabox, I really do. Detailed explanation and exercises for fundamentals (that are surprisingly hard to find online) - sounds great right? It's just that most of these actual videos are sloow, rambly, and poorly structured. I have to watch 20 minute videos twice, for info you could condense into 5 minutes if you paced and thought them through first. I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth but for me Drawabox delivered more wasted time than results

[@starquake7061]

I can barely draw two cylinders just by reading the instructions on the website and the video is just more confusing. How am I supposed to draw 250 of these? *cries a lot in the corner*

[@Uncomfortable]

That's kind of the point! Your first two, your first ten, your first hundred.. they all end up looking awful. They're supposed to. We learn from our failures, and not our successes - so we learn best by failing a *lot*. Just reading and just watching videos won't teach you much - you've got to put it into practice, then revisit that material once you've been able to put a little more of your own personal context to it. So keep at it. People generally aren't good at things they haven't yet done a lot of.

[@starquake7061]

+Uncomfortable Wow Thanks I will keep practicing.

[@pennygardner3264]

This helped me out significantly. Thanks.

[@Uncomfortable]

Glad I could help.

[@joli-rouge]

I was having difficulties understanding this topic, usually people just draw the extended minor axis and say that it is the minor axis, without explaining the relationship between those two. I was confused as f*ck... thank youuu soo muchhhhh

[@Uncomfortable]

I'm glad I could help clarify things! I'm actually going to be uploading a new version of this video on December 25th as part of the full rebuild/revision of the drawabox website and the lesson content, so be sure to check back.

[@joli-rouge]

@@Uncomfortable I absolutely will :) thank you for your work! I'll be waiting for those :)

[@ericnoble5194]

How do you determine the angle of your ellipse without digital tools? I'm trying to do your lessons and I'm struggling to determine degrees and maintain the same proportions of the ellipses.

[@Uncomfortable]

+Eric Noble A lot of it is just practice - at least as far as the degree goes. Angle is a matter of making sure the minor axis you've set out cuts the resulting ellipse into two equal, symmetrical halves, down the narrower dimension. When working with the degree of the ellipse, I'll usually just focus on the relationship between the two ellipses. Rather than aiming for a specific degree, I think about what it needs to be narrower than, and what it needs to be fatter than, and try and hit somewhere in between. Ultimately there's going to be a *lot* of failure involved, but that's par for the course. You don't learn anything by nailing it on your first try.

[@bobstone8446]

Perspective the maths of drawing

[@Uterr]

if you have 90 degree ellipse at base, youll allways will have 90 degree ellipse at top :)

[@Uncomfortable]

That's true, by virtue of there being no such thing as an ellipse with a higher degree than 90. If the base is 90, then you're looking at it straight-on, with both ellipses being parallel to your viewing angle.

[@jessiekohn7115]

Thank you so much for your time and free advice!! I most definitely need that eclipse tool, however it seems to only be for Windows. :(( Is there a Mac version too??

[@Uncomfortable]

Lazy Nezumi is windows only, but on Mac you can look up Hej Stylus. It's a different app, but works on the same premise and has ellipse constraints as well, I believe.

[@jessiekohn7115]

@@Uncomfortable Oh great!! Thanks a lot!! :)

[@tinktwiceman]

Love your videos. Can you do a how to draw spheres video? Then a how to draw cones video. Thank you. Your website and videos are so much help.

[@Uncomfortable]

+tinktwiceman Glad you liked them! As for spheres and cones, I'm not sure they're complicated enough to warrant their own videos. I might make a video for all the remaining forms in the future, but for now... Spheres are just circles. Perfect circles, all the time. No matter what angle you see a sphere from, it's going to be a circle. Cones are a little more complicated, but still pretty straight forward. The cone has an ellipse as its base, and the minor axis of that ellipse serves as the spine of the cone. Meaning, the point of the gone will sit on that spine. The greater the degree of that base ellipse, the closer the point will be to the center of the ellipse - when the ellipse is seen full on as a perfect circle, the point of that cone will be in the same position as the center of the ellipse. Here's some extra notes/diagrams: i.imgur.com/aUYrg1O.jpg

[@i_am_a_real_cat1443]

I don't know why I'm watching this, i don't even own a pen or paper

[@kirbyishappy]

This helps me out a lot, thanks!

[@danfer886]

Done with the 250 boxes. Any tips on how to get the angle right? Uhm, dunno if that other comment is asking the same question because I'm getting confused with all the specific English terms. I mean like the angle that middle line cuts through both ellipses. Any tips on how to make the two ellipses align as perfectly as possible?

[@Uncomfortable]

+Dan Fer It's all about the minor axis, which was first mentioned in the ellipse section of lesson 1. The minor axis is the line that passes through the center of the cylinder, and cuts both ellipses into two equal, symmetrical halves through its narrower dimension. While it's easy to draw an ellipse and then find its minor axis afterwards, what is required here is to be able to draw a line and *then* align an ellipse to it. That's something you may want to practice in isolation, before applying it to constructing a cylinder.

[@danfer886]

Huerhg. -.- Well, gotta do what I gotta do. Any nice practicing methods to help or tips? Or could I just draw a line and draw ellipses around it?

[@Uncomfortable]

+Dan Fer Drawing a line and ellipses around it is pretty much it. Also, the funnels exercise from lesson 1 is a good one too.

[@danfer886]

Yeah. I guess I should repeat those, I was kind of uncomfortable with them and am now again with the contour and texture lessons. :/ Well, here we go! Ty for the hint.

[@smurf88]

For some reason, for a lot of my box cylinders, the faraway cylinder reduces its degree so far that it goes past being a circle and becomes a sort of horizontal ellipse. Is this technically a cylinder? It looks weird.

[@Uncomfortable]

I can't really answer your question without seeing what you're talking about. That said, this video's been updated so you may want to watch that ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHPaeYhtZ5J0mM0 ) or read the new cylinder notes ( drawabox.com/lesson/250cylinders )

[@enoleiflow7507]

How to draw a cylinder. Draw a box

[@HampTamp]

What brushes do you use?

[@Uncomfortable]

HampTamp I'm pretty fond of: Shaddy Safadi's Brushes - www.shaddyconceptart.com/download James Paick's Brushes - gumroad.com/jamespaick (scroll down to the free Level Up! pack) Corbin Hunter's Portraiture Brushes - drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4J20biDxA9leGt2WVJITGRwUkU&usp=sharing&pageId=114950113725252466721 (though I don't strictly use these for portraiture)

[@HampTamp]

Uncomfortable Cool, thanks. I'll check'em out. Also going to try Shaddy's Intuos4 settings setup, looks like a logical way to use the Wacom tablet. Doing your lessons by the way, short and informative. Love them!

[@Anothergames]

Last one reminded me of a power supply. :D

[@Uncomfortable]

That's actually a really good observation - the majority of objects we have around us are just really simple combinations of geometric forms. It's something I really encourage for when people tackle lesson 6 (drawabox.com/lesson/6) (Every Day Objects). That if you forget that you're drawing an object, and just perceive it as a bunch of basic forms - if you put off the stage where you start rounding off your corners and adding the little extra details you see in your photo reference as long as possible - then your objects will appear much more solid and believable. That of course still requires you to be proficient at drawing boxes and cylinders.

[@Anothergames]

Uncomfortable Great! :D

[@harveydent1731]

I really don’t think I can draw one without a box first .

[@Uncomfortable]

But what exactly makes you say that? Are you talking about an arbitrary cylinder floating in space, or dropping one into a scene/construction with other forms already present? That latter case is exactly why we move onto drawing cylinders in boxes - but we start with the minor axis because it provides fewer challenges and allows us to focus on learning how to align our ellipses to a minor axis (which is needed regardless of whether you start with a minor axis or with a box).

[@loszhor]

Thank you for the information.

[@Uncomfortable]

Glad I could help.

[@mrchristian8782]

very helpful! thank you

[@zwardz8179]

Thank you

[@mregomaster7087]

Thank you!

[@krasnogorsk]

Thank you ! this was very helpful!

[@riccia888]

This is so wrong. Start with ellipse first then the box to create the perfect box

[@Uncomfortable]

riccia888 in this case it's not a matter of starting with a box because that's a great way to build a cylinder. It's that a box is considerably easier for to orient in a specific manner in 3d space, relative to other forms. We construct the box so we can drive from it a very specific minor axis. The method you described is great for constructing a box, but that's not our goal here. We're practicing skills that help us to use cylinders as a building block in a more complex construction.

[@selacarl399]

Too much talking

[@thomaseulogy7206]

So, I˙ve been reading this Norling - Perspective made easy book and 125 page is that thing about long and short axis that forms T where short one is the stem of the T and long axis is the crossbar. So, whenever I want to start to draw cylinder from a box I put diagonals to find the center of a closer and farther plane and draw that "axel" line but when I want to find longer axis it is never where it should be because square angle of T is always somewhere obviously shorter within that plane. I don˙t know if I explained it well. English is not my first language. What am I doing wrong?

[@Uncomfortable]

So the longer axis you're referring to is the major axis, and the short one is the minor axis. Don't worry at all about the major axis - it's not important. Secondly, if you look closely at how I construct my ellipses inside of boxes, I don't stress too much about getting the ellipse to fit perfectly in the box. I only construct the box to, as you mentioned, find the correct start/end points for the minor axis line. From there, I use the planes as a loose suggestion for the sizes of my ellipses. The most important thing you want to make sure you nail is the position of that minor axis line, and ensuring that your ellipses align to it correctly (so the ellipses are cut into two equal, symmetrical halves by the minor axis).

[@thomaseulogy7206]

+Uncomfortable imgur.com/ZrOG5Yy thank you for fast reply. This shows what I meant to say.

[@Uncomfortable]

Yes, that's normal - the major axis isn't actually supposed to necessarily line up with anything significant. Only the minor axis is important because it is the axis that the ellipse at either end of a cylinder shares.

[@thomaseulogy7206]

This is from the book: imgur.com/a/iJ05B My confusion is how does he always gets square angle with minor-major cross?

[@thomaseulogy7206]

And yet again, thank you for your time.