lidded bird jar

(see my demo in previous post to learn how I draw accurate ellipses)

demo - drawing ellipses

I have not posted in a while. My day job is illustrating children's books, and I am deeply involved in my 5th book right now. But....I really miss just drawing! So tonite I took out my Moleskine and sat down with one of my favorite and also most challenging items to draw - ellipses. I thought I'd turn this drawing into a little demo to show you how I begin my process.

I draw my ellipses freehand, starting with a center line and adding cross lines as reference points so that my ellipses are all as they should be. The rest, well, I "eyeball" the entire object as I draw it, measuring it in my mind and on paper. After drawing an ellipse, I turn my paper 180 degrees and recheck the ellipse. I may turn it 90 degrees as well and check it that way. When it comes to drawing, our minds have a tendency to lie to us and tell us everything is okay when it's not. It always pays to spend as much time as necessary checking and rechecking your initial sketch, since way too many mistakes are caught only after a drawing is finished. Mistakes can easily be avoided as long as you are not hasty in moving on to the rendering stage. In the end, it is worth the time taken to make sure your drawing is accurate.

My drawing looks pretty good, so I think I am ready to begin rendering it now.