A sphere is made from millions of circles that all share the same diameter or central axis line. This is how the world spins on it’s axis and how we separate the world into lines of longitude and latitude.
Imagine the Earth, spinning in space, and draw an imaginary line all the way around from the North Pole to the South Pole and back to North Pole again on the other side. Now draw another, imaginary, line at 90 degrees to the first, from the North Pole to the South Pole and back to North Pole again on the other side.

Finally draw an imaginary line around the equator. This line will be at 90 degrees to the first two lines. There will be 6 points where the lines cross each other. Just as a circle fits perfectly inside a square, a sphere fits perfectly inside a cube.

The six points – where the lines we drew crossed each other – touch the outsides of the cube at the centre of each of it’s faces.

We can find the centres of each face, by drawing lines from corner to corner on a wireframe drawing of a cube. Then we use those six points as guides to let us draw three ellipses each at right angles to each other, creating the wireframe drawing of a sphere inside a box.

Now – can you see how everything we have done so far has led us to this point? If so, your task is to take a deep breath and have a rest – but only for a minute! There’s work to be done in the next lesson! The index for this course is at http://www.shooraynerdrawing.com/..