Drawing with Shapes
Today I’d like to talk about how to use shapes to draw. Many artists begin their drawings using shapes. Just about anything you could ever want to draw can be broken down into basic shapes. Circle, rectangle, or square. Or their 3d counterparts, sphere, cylinder, and cube.
In my article on how to draw cubes, I talked a little bit about breaking down everyday objects into basic shapes. If you are able to see the underlying structure of a complex object, you’ll have an easier time drawing that object.
So what do I mean when I say basic shapes? What I’m talking about are circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles. To take that a step further we need to think about the 3 dimensional counterparts called form. These are spheres, cubes, cylinders, cones, and pyramids.
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Block in Drawing Using Shapes
By sketching in the placement of the various parts of a drawing, you are saving yourself a lot of hassle and frustration if something isn’t quite right. I think we’ve all experienced that moment when you’ve worked on a drawing for hours, only to realize something is “off” with it. At this point the entire drawing is ruined and all of your time has been wasted.
This situation is easily avoided by blocking in where everything will go in your drawing. This is typically done by using basic shapes. When I made my Mr. Mime artist trading card for a Pokémon themed swap, I used shapes to block in his body and position his hand.
Using Forms to Build Your Drawing
You can also use forms to build up the structure of your drawing. When drawing the human body, for example, you can build the entire body using forms. This allows you to see the position of the body before adding in all of your details, and wasting your time.
I began this drawing of a lacrosse player by building it up using forms. A sphere was used for his head and body. Cylinders were used for the arms and legs. And cubes are used for the hands and feet.
The reason for using forms when drawing the human body instead of shapes is so you can see the direction of the body. If you draw the head using a circle instead of a sphere, you won’t know which direction your person is looking.
Another reason to use forms instead of shapes is to add the third dimension to your drawing so it will look more realistic and natural. You don’t want your person to look flat. Unless you’re drawing Flat Stanley, then I guess it would be ok.
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3D Robot Drawing Using Forms
It is also possible to create works of art using only shapes or forms. There are many abstract works that use only shape. Cubism, for example, relies heavily on using shapes.
I did this lesson with my fourth grade students to teach them How to Draw Robots Using Forms.
Shape vs Form
As I mentioned earlier, the difference between a shape and a form is that a shape is two-dimensional (flat), and a form is three-dimensional (it has depth). Let’s look at these shapes and forms individually.
Drawing Spheres
The only difference when drawing a sphere instead of a circle, is shading. However, if you are using a sphere to rough out your drawing, you will most likely want to include contour lines. This is most commonly seen when drawing faces.
By drawing the contour lines, you can determine what direction your person will be looking. They could be looking up, and to the left. Or they might be looking down, and to the right. They could also be looking anywhere in between.
Drawing Cubes
As I mentioned in my article on how to draw cubes, many everyday objects can be drawn by starting out with a cube. These cubes might be square or rectangular in shape.
A car or truck, for example, would start out as a rectangular cube. If you used a rectangle to draw a car, it would look flat and lack realism. However, using a cube to draw a truck will give you much more interesting results.
Drawing Cylinders
Cylinders are commonly used in drawing. Especially if you are drawing people. When drawing bodies, cylinders are often used for the arms and legs.
If you need helping drawing cylinders, check out my post on How to Draw Cylinders.
Drawing Cones and Pyramids
To draw a cone, start with a circle, or a foreshortened circle, and then draw the sides up to a point that meets in the center.
Pyramids are drawn by starting out with diamond shape for the base, and then adding lines from each corner that meet at a point in the center. Your sides should all look like triangles.
Drawing with Shapes – Teach Yourself to Draw
It’s important to understand how to use shapes and forms in your drawings. Both are elements of art and are a fundamental part of learning to draw. To truly understand them takes practice and repetition.
Drawing from life is the best way to learn how to draw. A photograph is unable to capture everything that is there in real life. But with either one, learning to see the shapes and forms that lie within any object will help your journey to improve your artwork.
Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to learn how to use shapes to draw. I hope you have an amazing day. Don’t forget to make time to be creative and make the world a more interesting place.
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