Turning a piece of wood round very quickly on a lathe has, for a very long time, been been a simple way to add style, shape and decoration to what would otherwise look like a stick!

Chairs and table legs, candlesticks and wooden bowls have all been made in this way, so it is good to understand the method of manufacture if you want to draw objects that have been made this way. Pottery is made in the same way.

With a lathe, wood or metal is removed as the source material is spun around, revealing the finished object that was “inside” all along! A potter spins the clay around and shapes it into an object that is uniform around it’s central axis. In the next lesson we will put this idea to work as we start to combine all the simple shapes you have learned, to create more complex drawings.

The index for this course is at http://www.shooraynerdrawing.com/..