✏️ DRAWING ELLIPSES
✏️ YOUR SKETCH KIT
This lesson teaches ellipses in perspective. You will see why circles flatten into ovals at an angle, draw ellipses on cylinders, spot common mistakes, and finish with a mug and can in two-point perspective so your quiet alien spaceship does not look like it is tipping off a cliff.
- ✏️ Graphite pencil: HB for layout, light pressure on guide ellipses
- 📄 Sketch paper: room for horizon line and two vanishing points
- 📐 Ruler: horizon and box guides from Topic 10
- 🥤 Real mug and can (optional): look at the real rim while you sketch
- 🧽 Eraser: clean up construction lines after ellipses lock in
Time: about 10 minutes · Draw ellipses lightly first · Practice mug and can at the end
PAGE 1 OF 5, CIRCLES BECOME ELLIPSES
THE BIG IDEA
CIRCLES AT AN ANGLE
A perfect circle looks round only when you stare straight at its flat face, like a coin on a table seen from above. Tilt that coin and the round edge turns into a squashed oval called an ellipse. Every round opening you draw in perspective, from a spaceship porthole to a coffee mug rim, follows this rule. The more you tip the circle away from your eyes, the flatter the ellipse becomes. Keep the oval symmetrical and your round objects sit solidly in space instead of wobbling like they might roll off the page.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
A circle viewed at a perfect 90-degree side angle becomes a thin line. That is the most squashed ellipse possible.
OVAL!
FACE ON
⭕ Straight-on view = full circle.
👁️ You see the whole flat face.
👁️ You see the whole flat face.
TILTED
〰️ Tilted view = ellipse.
📐 Round edge looks squashed.
📐 Round edge looks squashed.