How to draw ellipses in perspective in 7 steps | TIP 158

10 Comments

January 23, 2016

Step 1:
Click to Download the Designer Starter Kit
(Pdf + Videos)

Step 2:
Click to Download the 7 steps of the ellipse (pdf)
(Right click + Save as)

Hey, today I would like to share with you some TIPS about How to draw ellipses in perspective.

It will be a great start for later on drawing things such as glasses, bottles, bowl, wheels… basically cylinders and offset.

If you need,  feel free to watch How to draw a cube with 2-point perspective, video first. It will be your first step of the sketching tutorial.

Below are the the different steps in picture.

Step 1 |  Draw a box with 2-point perspective

How to draw ellipses in perspective - The design sketchbook

 

Step 2 | Divide the front face in 4 equal parts and find the center.

How to draw ellipses in perspective - The design sketchbook 1

 

Step 3 | Draw the Minor axis going through the Vanishing point and the center.

How to draw ellipses in perspective - The design sketchbook 2

 

Step 4 | Find the middle of each edge of the square

How to draw ellipses in perspective - The design sketchbook 3

 

Step 5 | Trace your ellipse !

Joining the 4 dots + Using the Minor axis as a Symmetry axis

How to draw ellipses in perspective - The design sketchbook 4

 

Step 6 | Optional | Check that the Major axis is Perpendicular to the Minor axis

How to draw ellipses in perspective - The design sketchbook 5

 

Step 7 | Check that both axis are Symmetry axis of the ellipse !

How to draw ellipses in perspective - The design sketchbook 6

 

GOOD TO KNOW:

The Minor axis is the shortest distance of the ellipse.

The Major axis is the longest distance of the ellipse.

How to draw ellipses in perspective - The design sketchbook 7

Take a pen, explore multiple angles of cubes and enjoy !

Hope it was helpful.

See you !

Cheers,
Chou-Tac

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About The Author

Chou-Tac

Hello ! My name is Chou-Tac. I am a product designer from France. If the sketching methods I’ve acquired aid me in my life and in my industrial design career, I believe that they can also help you reach your design goal as a student or professional. My aim to help you all along with your design projects and journey. Anytime, feel free to leave a comment in the blog or send me an email at [email protected] : )

10 Comments

  • John

    Reply Reply May 4, 2017

    Hi Chou-Tac, thanks for your and this video.

    Your ellipse and perspective is wrong! But let me explain:

    You can put a perfect circles in a box, where all sides have the same length, so you can put a perfect circles in a square.

    If you want a perfect square in perspective, you are using ellipses.
    They are not the only tool to get a square in perspective, but its one of the fastest ways.

    In your video, you first established the right and left vanishing point, you draw the “square” in perspective, and then you draw the ellipse in it. Maybe it will work sometimes, but thats not the correct way, because this can lead to a wrong ellipse.

    The right way doing it, is to draw the ellipse first and let your ellipse guides your vanishing points, or you draw your left and right vanishing points first, draw a square but only with 3 edges (top, down and left side), then you put your ellipse in and CHECK if its the correct one, to get the 4th edge (right side).

    I hope you understand what I mean and that you can do a video about that, because there are only a little material about that topic.

    thanks!

  • Julia

    Reply Reply July 22, 2016

    Thank you!
    In fine I understood how to draw the minor axis. But it doesn’t work with ellipses in the rectangle. How to draw those? Just with four points in the middle of every side?

    • Chou-Tac

      Reply Reply July 22, 2016

      Hello Julia,

      this tutorial works for circle inside a square only. 🙂

  • rooben

    Reply Reply January 27, 2016

    Hi Chou-Tac,
    Thanks for the tips…Any chance in having a quick explanation of using eye level perspective to draw complex objects

    • Chou-Tac

      Reply Reply January 27, 2016

      Hello Rooben,

      In few words, you have to SIMPLIFY complex objects in multiple simple one. To do that, you need to ignore the details, colours, logos… Think” “structure”.

      For example, if you create a new way to ride a bike, draw the “architecture” of the bike. Focus on how it works, how people will ride it. Then only you will spend more time on the shape and details of the bike. It’s convenient start drawing a side view so you can get the proportion. Later your challenge will be “transposing” this side view in perspective.

      There is multiple ways to start a project, but this one is pretty efficient.

      About the eye level, it’s all the same as what you can find in the Designer Starter Kit for a cube.

      • rooben

        Reply Reply January 27, 2016

        Thanks Chou-Tac,i will apply this methodology and try to avoid getting distracted by details.

  • Luke

    Reply Reply January 27, 2016

    Good stuff Chou-Tac!

    I feel it’s worth adding that we usually draw ellipses to present CIRCLES in perspective. As a result, the bounding box needs to be a SQUARE in perspective. If accuracy is important, you may need to use a few more steps and construction techniques in your sketch. Personally I need more practice with this, but I’m down on the theory involved.

    Cheers – Luke

    • Chou-Tac

      Reply Reply January 27, 2016

      Hey Luke, you are right it’s worth mentioning the Circle. Thanks !

  • Nick Bourantanis

    Reply Reply January 26, 2016

    Hi Chou-Tac,

    Great tip! By drawing the cube in perspective first you eliminate the guesswork as to how open the bottom ellipse should be compared to the top.

    thank you and keep it up,

    cheers,
    Nick

    • Chou-Tac

      Reply Reply January 27, 2016

      My pleasure Nick !

      I agree, it’ all about eliminating the guesswork.

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