How to Draw a Sphere on a Cube

How to Draw a Sphere on a Cube

Video by Vladimir London, the Life Drawing Academy tutor

Many artists would find it challenging to draw a perfect sphere placed on a cube. In some drawings, spheres would levitate above the cube, in others these objects would intersect each other. In this video, you will see a special way to do it with precision.

Let's begin with a sphere. Its outline is a perfect circle. To place it in perspective, I will draw two vanishing lines as horizontal perpendicular axes. A perfectly elliptical oval is the contour. It is a virtual equator of this sphere. I will circumscribe a perfect square around that oval. We know it is a square because its each side touches the equator in the points where two axes cross that oval. The square's sides are vanishing lines. They converge into the vanishing points on the horizon somewhere beyond the drawing area. We can also check if this square is correct by drawing its diagonals. These two lines cross each other in the center. I will outline the equator contour. On that oval, we can mark four green dots. A vertical elliptical oval contour goes through two dots. Its long axis is perpendicular to the horizontal axis. The point where this oval crosses the vertical axis of symmetry is the South pole. This is the point where this sphere will touch a cube. Through this point, I can now draw two axes in the same two-point perspective; They are converging towards the vanishing points on the horizon. The four green dots on the sphere's equator can be projected downward to mark the edges of the cube. These new green dots will help us to draw the top edges in perspective. The sphere's diameter, marked here in blue line, can be used as the measuring stick for the height of the cube. This dimension spans between the sphere's footprint and the ground. The green dot at the bottom is the central point of the cube's footprint. With all key points in place, we can now build the rest of this cube. I will outline its edges in darker lines. Note how the aerial perspective is depicted by varying the boldness of these lines. According to one of the main constructive drawing principles, I draw these objects as they are transparent. Boldness of lines indicates which parts of these objects are closer to a viewer. Here's a sphere that lies on top of the cube with the same size. These objects are touching each other in one red point.

I hope you have learned something new in this video. This is just a small part of one task out of 100 assignments in the Life Drawing Academy Correspondence Course. Imagine how much more you will learn in that course from how to draw geometric objects to how to draw portraits and human figures. We guarantee that you will reach the advanced level of drawing skills in this course should you complete all 100 tasks.

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