Core77

How to Draw a Perfect Circle

By Rain Noe - October 20, 2014

in Sketching

Drawing is about muscle control, and muscle control comes from reps. Which is why Professor Gary, our Drawing teacher at ID school had us draw hundreds, then thousands, of cubes in perspective. And once we'd gotten those down to his satisfaction, we drew yet more cubes in perspective, then started filling the planes with ellipses.

There is no shortcut, he taught. If your circles suck, draw 10,000 of them and at some point they'll stop sucking.

Well, turns out there is a shortcut, at least for drawing circles of a few specific sizes. Not much applicability for ID sketching, but it was clever enough that we at least had to show you:

Half of you will think it's clever. The other half won't be impressed until this guy comes up with a trick for drawing perfect ellipse-filled cubes in perspective. And if I'd showed Professor Gary this video back then, he'd have looked at me and said, "Don't be an asshole."

Comments

James Patrick

10 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Shit the cat's out of the bag. I always used the knuckle on my pinky for the quick sketches. For more precise diameters, I hold two pencils and use one as the pivot point for a makeshift compass. Use a ruler and you've got a perfect circle at the perfect size.
!Report as spam
Evan T.

10 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Man I have been doing this for years when people tell me how difficult it is to draw a perfect circle. Except I always used a knuckle as the pivot instead of the wrist.

Oh well, looks like the secret is out.
!Report as spam
peter

10 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

step 1

accept that perfect does not exist
!Report as spam
Karl Lexus

10 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

I thought I need to draw a head and erase some part of it to make a perfect circle.
!Report as spam
Louis Leblanc

10 years ago

Z

Z

Reply

Another fascinating but mildly useful penmanship trick from Walter Lewin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l789l6np-qA

It's sure to get a class' attention if you use it sparingly.
!Report as spam