The Art and Science of Drawing

Drawing Objects in Three Dimensions

Once you have some experience drawing basic volumes, you can use them to construct actual objects.

Always remember: All things, no matter how complex, are made up of basic volumes like spheres, cylinders, and boxes. This includes people, plants, animals, landscapes, and human-made objects. Your ultimate goal is to draw all objects as three-dimensional volumes occupying space. To this end you should strive to understand the volumes that make up the subjects you are drawing.

Here, you can see numerous drawings of a teacup. The largest volume of the teacup is a sphere that has been cut in half. This half-sphere is hollowed out, so we see a visible rim around the edge of the half-sphere. This visible rim is created ...