How to Draw Easy Cylindrical Formulas for Products

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Discover how to bring your products to life with the help of simple cylindrical formulas.
Follow these 4 sketching tips and start drawing cylinders today!

How to Draw Easy Cylindrical Formulas for Products

TIP 1 Draw with a Papermate Flair M
TIP 2 The minor axis is your symmetry axis!
TIP 3 The 3 steps to drawing “cylindrical forms” are easy
TIP 4 Visualize boxes in perspective
TIP 5 Draw contour lines
TIP 6 Try the Spring technique!

Drawing cylinders is inspiring when you decline them into an infinity of forms to draw your products. Let me show you how to decline them easily in 3 steps, and share with you my sketching tips!

TIP 1| Draw with a Papermate Flair M

Learning a new technique is often intimidating at the start.
As a beginner, we lack precision.
This is why I recommend you practice with a thicker felt nib: The Papermate Flair M is my favorite.

Draw without looking for perfection and enjoy studying today’s drawing tutorials!

TIP 2| The minor axis is your symmetry axis!

Take any product around you with a cylinder base.
Turn it in any angle while visualizing the invisible minor axis. — **Take any product around you with a cylinder base.**
Turn it at any angle while visualizing the invisible minor axis.

An important rule is to draw a cylinder base product, the minor axis is your symmetry axis.
No matter from which angle you see your product.

We use the Cylinder base to create our new form drawing a series of ellipses.

Spot the minor axis here in blue = symmetry axis

TIP 3| The 3 steps to drawing “cylinder forms” are easy

Let’s have fun drawing some random forms using the “Cylinder base” technique! I show you below in 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Draw an axis — **Step 1:** Draw an axis

Step 2: Draw ellipses with different sizes all along the axis. — **Step 2:** Draw ellipses of different sizes all along the axis.

Step 3: Connect the ellipses creating the form you want. — **Step 3:** Connect the ellipses creating the form you want.

IMPORTANT:

TO KNOW: The top ellipse is thinner than the bottom one. All the ellipses in between get thick gradually going down. — **TO KNOW:** The top ellipse is thinner than the bottom one. All the ellipses in between get thick gradually going down.

TIP 4| Visualize boxes in perspective

To level up your visualization in 3D, imagine your “cylinder forms” embed in boxes in perspective.

Each box is a portion of the "Cylinder form". — Each box is a portion of the “Cylinder form”.

TIP 5| Draw contour lines

To show even more clarity and volume, add in contour lines. To practice this, you will need first to study the Designer Starter Kit.

Level up learning how to draw the contour lines of your volumes. — Level up by learning how to draw the contour lines of your volumes.

TIP 6| Try the Spring technique!

Let me show you a fun sketching technique.
I draw some springs to create some volumes. Remember to widen the “ellipses” as you go down.

1 comment

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Gurupreet: “Hi, I come from India and I am 20 years old. I am an freelance artist and I use to…” Jun 30, 22:14
Jatin Verma: “I come from India. I want to learn sketching in general, 1.India, 30 2. Studying graphic design and Sketching 3.…” Jun 30, 14:19
Jatin: “I come from India. I want to learn sketching in general, 1.India, 30 2. Studying graphic design and Sketching 3.…” Jun 30, 14:11
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NISHTHA HARSH NIRMAL: “I come from India. I want to learn sketching in general, but product sketching career-wise. I discovered this through Pinterest” Jun 27, 14:32
Nishtha: “I need this book as im an aspiring designer. I love to sketch. I discovered this blog through pinterest.” Jun 27, 10:57
Joh: “Brisbane, 37 Looking for a new hobby :) googled contour lines!” Jun 26, 13:31
Chou-Tac: “Hi Adrian, We are in 2025, and I am re-reading my article. :) The example I gave here: Some applicants…” Jun 25, 18:33
Chou-Tac: “Hi Hana, Sure you will! You got all the content you need in the blog. :)) For the shoe design,…” Jun 25, 17:02
Chou-Tac: “Hey Haitam, The first step is to study perspective. From CAD, you already got a great grasp on it. You…” Jun 25, 16:59
Iwan: “Indonesian, 30 Hobby From Youtube Thankss” Jun 25, 12:56
India: “1. Australia, 20 2. Studying interior design and architecture 3. While researching for an assessment – I am researching for…” Jun 24, 11:06
Haitam KHLIFI TAGHZOUTI: “Dear, First i want to say thanks for creating and sharing with us wonderful informations anout sketching. I am Haitam…” Jun 24, 03:17
Vanessa: “France , 42 To improve my skills. A link on a blog (don’t remember the name)” Jun 23, 22:11
Z: “Pakistan/ 18 Wanna polish the skill Chat gpt suggested it” Jun 23, 18:58
J: “Can’t wait to” Jun 23, 01:30
L: “1. Somerset UK. 30 2. Improve skills 3. Searching on the web” Jun 22, 18:03
Bernardo applegate lopez: “1- Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, México 2- passion & expression. Share my ideas with the world 3- through a designers feed…” Jun 22, 13:34
lucky 101 apk: “This tutorial is incredibly helpful! I always struggled with perspective drawing, but your step-by-step approach makes it so much clearer.…” Jun 22, 09:43
Faisal Atta: “1). I come from London, UK 2). I want to improve to my sketching skills 3). YouTube search – perspective…” Jun 20, 14:04
Faisal Atta: “1). I come from London, UK 2). I want to improve to my sketching skills 3). From YouTube – perspective…” Jun 20, 12:57
Hana: “Hello, I’m 39 from Czech Republic. I studied design but burned out and I haven’t designed or drew anything in…” Jun 19, 21:41
IDIOTS: “im from Myanmar / age 21 / im attending technology university / im also doing digital sculpting as a freelance…” Jun 19, 21:39
IDIOTS: “im from Myanmar / age 21 / im attending technology university / im also doing digital sculpting as a freelance…” Jun 19, 21:38