Class Nineteen

Cylinders and Ellipses in Perspective

In this lesson we will focus on putting cylinders in perspective. This includes all ellipses. This can include a can of beans, a silo on a farm, water tower or wheels on a car. I will demonstrate it in 1 pt. perspective for clarity. I will also cover the difference between putting a circle in perspective, where we need to know the center of the circle, and drawing an ellipse in perspective. Please follow along with the video as this is the most challenging perspective exercise out of the three.

Assignment, Cylinder:

Materials

  • Large Pad 18×24, Vertical, only 1 sheet
  • #2H pencil
  • White eraser
  • 1 Colored pencil
  • Ruler or straight edge

1 Sheet of a Cylinder in Perspective:

  • Follow along with the video.
  • Place 1 can of Beans or tomatoes, corn etc. on your table to help clarify this lesson.
  • Place your horizon line about 3 ” from the top of your sheet.
  • Add the Station Point down the center of the sheet
  • Proceed to follow the video
  • Color the front surface of your cylinder, not the top, but from the top edge to the forward bottom edge. This will give the illusion of 3-D.
  • Leave all the perspective lines evident

Upload your photo to the assignment section.

T/TH, Due:

M/W, Due:

Secondly, Read 2 links, “Rabatment” (Wikipedia) and “Rabatment, J. Reeve” and answer the questions in the assignment section. T/TH, Due: ; M/W, Due:

Here is the example from the video lesson.
Hand-out: How to draw an accurate ellipse by enclosing it in a box and dividing it horizontally and vertically(quadrants). Draw being conscious of symmetry as each quadrant is the same.
Hand-out 2: The difference between a circle in perspective and an ellipse.
View of man looking at a cylinder. You can see here that the man cannot see the diameter of the circle, he can only see the major axis. This is why we draw the top of a cylinder using our understanding of an ellipse.
Top: A circle’s halfway point is foreshortened. Note that the diameter of a circle is further back in space than the major axis of the ellipse. It is important to know where the center of the circle is in order to draw things such as a clock face, wheels on a car that are joined by an axis, stem of a wine glass ect. Bottom: This is incorrect. This ellipse was created using the diameter of a circle rather than the Major axis of the ellipse.
Left: This cylinder is drawn correctly using the major axis. Right: The difference between the diameter and the major axis.