How to Draw Horizontal Circles in Perspective

How to Draw Horizontal Circles in Perspective

Video by Vladimir London, the Life Drawing Academy tutor

In this video, you will discover how to draw horizontal circles in perspective.

Here's the method developed by Vladimir London for the Life Drawing Academy Correspondence Course students. When you divide any rectangle into four quadrants and its lateral halves into three parts, a perfect ellipse can be inscribed into this geometry. Now, let's draw a line of horizon. The vanishing point is placed on this line. Two vanishing lines connect that point with the ellipse edges. They form a square in one-point perspective around that ellipse. The horizontal line that goes through the cross-point of square's diagonals; this is the horizontal axis of an oval, which coincides with the ellipse. Although it is the same elliptical shape, the oval's center is different from the ellipse's center.

Now, let's make another drawing. The horizon line is placed in the middle. Vanishing lines span from the vanishing point. These lines help us to build squares in one-point perspective. There is one square above the horizon and two squares are below. Inside each square we can inscribe a perfect elliptical oval. The closer such an oval to the horizon, the slimmer it is. Once again, you can see that the oval's axis does not coincide with the ellipses axis. There is one more thing to note - the frontal half of each oval is bolder than its rear half. How to draw circles in perspective greatly helps in drawing cubes and cylindrical objects.

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