Sketching Tutorials

How to Draw Ellipses (Freehand & Easy)

Not sure how to draw ellipses freehand?
Follow this easy video tutorial and learn the steps for drawing perfect ellipses fast and great!

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once,
but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
– Bruce Lee

How to Draw an Ellipse Freehand
- How this Ellipse video tutorial helped Sam:
The 5 Mistakes to Fail Drawing Ellipses
The 8 Solutions to Succeed in Drawing Professional Ellipses

How to Draw an Ellipse Freehand

In today’s video tutorial, we cover:

The 5 common beginner mistakes.
The 8 easy techniques to succeed in your ellipses by today!

Take a ballpoint pen, and paper,
and let’s draw 10000 ellipses together! 😀

How this Ellipse video tutorial helped Sam:

Sam testimonial on How to draw ellipse video tutorial

The 5 Mistakes to Fail Drawing Ellipses

01:01 MISTAKE #1 🥞 PANCAKE ELLIPSE

The most common mistake is the ellipse that looks flat at the bottom.
You try to draw many of them, but this flat surface keeps coming back.
Why? Because of an improper body posture.
Make sure your elbow is free of movement.

01:23 MISTAKE #2 POINTY ELLIPSE

The shape of the ellipse becomes an “egg”.
This egg shape is asymmetrical and is easy to fix by drawing multiple loops instead of one.

MISTAKE #2 POINTY ELLIPSE EGG SHAPE — The egg shape is the second most common beginner mistake

01:58 MISTAKE #3 FURRY ELLIPSE

Lacking confidence, you trace many small lines one after another.
But the outcome looks amateur and hesitant.
You have to practice your line quality itself.

02:27 MISTAKE #4 SHAKY ELLIPSE

Lacking confidence, your hand is shaking.
You feel a bit of fear when you draw.
It is often linked to trying to draw with perfection, but you end with an amateur quality of line.

02:35 MISTAKE #5 OVERCONFIDENT ELLIPSE

On the opposite, you want to imitate professional design sketchers.
You draw fast and your lines express speed.
But… you can’t achieve drawing any ellipse properly.

Drawing with overconfidence
is like trying to drive a sports car that is too fast for you.
You need training on the basics first.

The 8 Solutions to Succeed in Drawing Professional Ellipses

03:25 HOW TO SOLVE THE 5 ELLIPSE MISTAKES

We saw the 5 beginner common mistakes.
Now let’s see the 8 complementary techniques to master freehand ellipses with confidence!

03:41 SOLUTION #1 GHOST DRAWING

If you want to learn how to draw like the professionals,
this technique is the most important to master early (for drawing “perfect” lines, circles, and curves)

SOLUTION #1 GHOST DRAWING Simulate the movement — Simulating the movement before tracing your ellipse helps you better visualize the outcome.

SOLUTION #1 GHOST DRAWING Draw multiple loops — Don’t stop at the first ellipse loop. Draw adding 3 to 4 loops on your ellipse to gain momentum and precision.

5:00 SOLUTION #2 DRAW GENTLE

If you have a heavy wrist,
it is time to be gentle with your pen.

Use the ghost drawing, and let your ballpoint pen nib touch progressively the surface of the paper. Then bold along the way if needed.

05:53 SOLUTION #3 REGULAR SPEED

If you start sketching, avoid making acceleration to show fluidity.
You also don’t need speed to draw dynamic lines.
Take your time.
What matters is the momentum you create during the ghost drawing, not the speed.

06:30 SOLUTION #4 ITERATE

If you feel that you start drawing a bad ellipse, don’t stop!
Continue and iterate on top of it. If it is not satisfying yet, draw another one!

08:52 SOLUTION #5 WHOLE ARM DRAWING

Do you draw with your elbow resting on the table?
If yes, get ready to make big progress by starting drawing with your whole arm.

SOLUTION #5 WHOLE ARM DRAWING don't draw with wrist

SOLUTION #5 WHOLE ARM DRAWING don't draw with elbow on table

11:04 SOLUTION #6 GOOD SUPPORT

To draw with precision, you need stability.
You use the below fingertip to “hold your pen like a tripod”.
So when you draw, your fingertips slide on the paper surface with sketching control and stability.

SOLUTION #6 GOOD SUPPORT Pen slides on table

12:18 SOLUTION #7 SYMMETRY

A beautiful ellipse is symmetrical.
To start this exercise, let’s see how to draw plenty of them!

SOLUTION #7 SYMMETRY 45degrees movement — Drawing with 45º makes the movement a lot easier as it respects your body movements

SOLUTION #7 SYMMETRY Turn your paper — Remember to rotate your paper anytime you need!

16:23 SOLUTION #8 FOCUS

It is easy to get overwhelmed with so many ellipses on your paper. Your vision gets blurred, and your ellipses get slanted.

Visualize the angle of your minor axis before tracing your ellipses.

Remember to start to apply today to make progress fast and use these techniques anytime to sketch at home, office, train, cafe…

If you want to learn more about how to draw an ellipse in perspective,
I made a 7 Steps ellipse drawing video tutorial

How to draw an ellipse in perspective - video tutorial — How to draw an ellipse in perspective,

See you!

Cheers,
Chou-Tac

Testimonial of the day:

Hi! I know how important feedback is when you do something for other people.
I really like your step-by-step lessons, they can be studied gradually, and they can be printed. It is very convenient.

I watch videos when I have a little more time. I like to look directly at the drawing process. This is inspiring. Both formats are needed!