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.

Draw with the Spring technique! — The Spring technique!

Fill many draft paper to practice. — Fill out many draft papers to practice.

Alrighty, I hope you enjoy this simple tutorial. I wish to show you how you can draw many new forms even as a beginner. :)

See you for the next DRAWING TIP!
Cheers,
Chou-Tac

1 comment

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Derry: “22, Riva, Google Search, perspective drawin problems, i want to change my mindset about sketching.” Jun 15, 23:46
RoZ: “1. I’m from France and i’m 22 years old 2. I need to improve my drawings 3. Google search 4.…” Jun 15, 22:30
Andrés: “1. I´m from Colombia and I´m 49 years 2. I love to learn something new allways 3. Chat GPT brought…” Jun 15, 06:36
Simona: “Hi, I’m Czech living in Italy, I’m 42. I graduated a few months ago in product design. I would like…” Jun 14, 22:06
Simona: “Hi, I’m Czech living in Italy, I’m 42. I graduated a few months ago in product design. I would like…” Jun 14, 22:05
Smash Karts: “This tutorial is fantastic! I loved how you broke down the steps for drawing a cube in 2-point perspective. The…” Jun 14, 03:57
Chou-Tac: “Love that answer. :)” Jun 14, 00:32
Chou-Tac: “That is a beautiful goal you have Mayhiv. :)” Jun 13, 13:03
Foxy: “I love art and sketching. It heals me.” Jun 12, 11:58
Foxy: “I love art and sketching” Jun 12, 11:57
Mayhiv: “I’m from spain but living in Germany. almost 40 years old. I want to become Children llustrator. I discovered via…” Jun 9, 03:31
Khushi: “I love to sketch,” Jun 8, 19:19
Chou-Tac: “Yes, 2015 Antonis. Thank you for your support since the beginning of the blog!! :))” Jun 8, 15:12
Chou-Tac: “Sure you can Leo :)) I invite you to try this tutorial. It is great for beginner to get instant…” Jun 8, 15:10
Abdurahim: “From Ethiopia,20 year old B/c I have interest You tube” Jun 8, 05:07
tpink: “NSW in Australia 50+ learnt art at school have more sketch books with 1 to 3 drawings in them then…” Jun 8, 02:17
LEO DOHOGNE: “Chicago-78, To prove to myself I can draw more than stick people. Everything. I found you site in an internet…” Jun 8, 01:46
Antonis: “Sweden / 46 New ideas and problem solving. Old follower. No problems. Want to evolve.” Jun 8, 01:39
Keagan Degoede: “hi! Im from south africa , im 17 years old. im going to do mechatronics after school and i have…” Jun 7, 22:55
Shravani shashank shende: “I come from india. My age is 21yrs . Because I am a product designer. And i want to improve…” Jun 7, 13:35
Adi: “Accra GH, 37 yo. Learning to sketch for industrial design. Research looking for some, sort of product design workbook.” Jun 6, 13:29
Chou-Tac: “Ola Miguel, Que tal? Estoy de acuerdo que dibujar con el mano esta mas la libertad de communicar con las…” Jun 6, 01:00
Chou-Tac: “Awesome Bria! Congrats for your new job as an Art teacher! I am actually relocating to USA, and considering looking…” Jun 6, 00:56
Chou-Tac: “Hey Mary, Singapore, so cool. I used to live and work there (Charles & Keith) for quite a few years.…” Jun 6, 00:53
Chou-Tac: “Hey Joshua, please thank your colleague for the recommendation :D. Let me know how it goes. You may find this…” Jun 6, 00:51