• So what can we draw with boxes?

    Boxes are one of the easiest shapes for manufacturing, so you should begin to see boxes every where you look.

    You’ll find a box shape in – well, boxes! Your mobile cell phone is just a very thin box. Office buildings, printers radios, TVs… so many things are boxes or boxes with other boxes stuck on to them!

    To draw box-shaped things, draw a box that is a similar shape to the object you want to draw.

    Then really look at the object. Are some bits cut out of the box? Are some bits added? When you draw the object, you are sort of “Draping” an image of the object on top of the box.

    With practice you will be able to do this in your head – but it does take practice. That means doing a little bit every day. This is how you train your brain to really see and understand.

    Task: Look around you. Look for things that are made of box shapes. Draw the box shape lightly in pencil, then convert the simple box into the object you want to draw.

    Sounds easy? If you really use your eyes and look at the object you are drawing, you will learn to “Drape” that image over the simple box that is like a shell or a foundation for your drawing.

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

  • Drawing circles sounds easy, but drawing a perfect circle freehand is almost impossible.

    The 11th century artist, Giotto, was asked to send the Pope an example of his drawing skills before he was commissioned to paint a work of art. To show how good he was, he sent the Pope a perfect freehand drawing of a circle. Giotto got the job!

    You can draw circles by drawing round circular objects like plates or jar lids, or you can use a compass.

    The width between the point of the compass and the pencil is the radius of the circle. The line you create is the circumference, meeting up where you began, creating a circle centred around the point of the compass.

    A circle fits perfectly inside a square, only touching the midpoints of each the four lines that make up the outside of the square. We can use this fact to help us draw a circle freehand.

    Drawing circles freehand is not easy. You need to loosen up a bit. One good exercise is to draw circles round and round in a scribbly fashion, to get your hand moving freely and smoothly. Then draw pages of circles of different sizes.

    If you get tired, stop. there is no point practicing to draw bad circles! try and draw the best circles you can. With a little daily practice, your circles will improve.

    It might seem a bit silly drawing so many circles, but this was exactly how you learned to write your abc, filling pages with letters of the alphabet, and that worked!

    This creates what is called muscle memory. Just as you learn to ride a bicycle, you can learn to draw circles and the muscles in your hands will remember how to do it again and again, just as you don’t have to think about the physical act of writing while you write a note or a shopping list.

    Learn to draw circles confidently as so many drawn objects are based on this shape.

    Task: Draw circles. Start with some sweeping circles with maybe ten revolutions for each circle. Then fill the rest of the page with circles. Do this every day as a quick warm-up exercise and you will soon be drawing beautiful circles.

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

  • CubesClick the picture to download the pdf. Cut out the squares and rectangles. Use them as templates to quickly draw shapes. You can draw the square and rectangle shapes freehand, if you prefer.

    Connect pairs together and create boxes, just like we did with the triangles and prisms earlier.

    To help you get the idea of how boxes are constructed, get some cardboard boxes and pull them apart and stick them back together again. Cut out and make the box on the pdf sheet.

    Making things like boxes is good for you brain. As you cut it out the flat design, fold it up and stick it together, your brain will be building a 3D map of how a box is made.

    Eventually you want to be able to imagine a box and be able to see it from any angle all inside your head, so you can just draw it as you see it in your mind’s eye.

    This come naturally to some people, but don’t worry – the more you draw and play with 3D shapes and objects, the easier it is to imagine and manipulate those shapes in your head. It’s brain training!

    BoxesTask: using the templates or drawing freehand, draw lots and lots of boxes! Draw pages of them – every shape and size – until you feel comfortable and confident drawing the box you are seeing in your mind’s eye.

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