Exercise 06: How to Draw a Sphere in 3d

New lessons go up every week, check the Exercises!

Drawing a good sphere or ball is very important! It can help you understand coloring, shading, and how to draw the head and hair!

So this is how you draw a sphere. Begin with a familiar shape: The circle!

If you’ve studied some perspective before, you may know about vanishing points and horizon lines. However, drawing extra lines outside the circle can turn the circle into something else…

Instead, you can show the depth on a sphere in two ways. First, is by using shading or coloring. Shading will reveal how the ball receives light, and casts shadow.

Notice where the shadow is cast in relation to the light source. The shadow makes the sphere look like it’s popping out of the page!

Also notice where the arrow is pointing. This is the darkest part of the shading on the sphere, but it’s not on the very edge. This core shadow is due to how the light bounces off the floor and surrounding area to reflect back on the ball.

Secondly, you can use the details on the ball. On spheres, details follow the contour lines which wrap around the ball. Contour lines define the dimensions and give a “bump” to the drawing!

Have you ever seen a globe of the earth? There are two kinds of contour lines you can see there.

Take a look at this volleyball below. Can you pick out how the shading and the details both help the ball look 3d?

More lessons on drawing in 3d to come! We will also cover the Cube and the Cylinder. See you then!

More in the 3d series:
Drawing a Sphere: you’re already here!
Drawing a Cube: http://mangastart.com/blog/?p=203
Drawing a Cylinder: http://mangastart.com/blog/?p=244

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