Exercise 08: How to Draw a Cylinder in 3d

The last in our series of basic forms: The cylinder! This lesson will show you how to draw cylinders, also sometimes known as tubes.

Do you remember our lessons on the Cube and the Sphere? Take a quick look at them and refresh yourself!

Depending on how you look at a tube, it has round parts and straight parts. If you look at it from the top, it’s a circle. If you look at it from the side, it’s a square, or a rectangle!

So you take the parallels from drawing a cube, and mix them with the contours from drawing a sphere… and you get a cylinder!

When you’re looking to color,
Think about the light source again — On the rounded, contoured part of the tube, stay bright near the light and put your shadow on the other side. Remember, the darkest part of the shadow is the core shadow, and it’s usually near where light and shadow meet!

At the very edge of the cylinder, it’s more like a cube — the separating edge marks a big shift between the light on one part and the next.

Now, let’s put some details on cylinders!
Details need to follow the parallels and contours of your cylinder.

This delicious can of Coko Soda has writing, decorative dots, and a barcode on its side that line up with the can. See how the writing follows a line across the page? And, the barcode and dots line up too!

But take a close look at the lines inside the barcode… They aren’t straight up and down… Why not?

Part of the detail on a cylinder is straight, but since the can also has curved contours, details will wrap around the cylinder. Take a look at this tea canister:

The letters for “T E A” and the three tea leaves stand straight up and down, but when the can turns, the contours shift. See how the “T E A” curves downwards on the left… but turn the can, and “T E A” curves upwards! Every detail — the white square on the label, the join between upper and lower halves, and the tea leaves — also follow the contour!

Well, now that we’ve got the basic forms in lessons, we’re ready to tackle some advanced lessons. The plan next time is “How to draw hands”, which will need different groups of cylinders See you then!

More in the 3d series:
Drawing a Sphere: http://mangastart.com/blog/?p=165
Drawing a Cube: http://mangastart.com/blog/?p=203
Drawing a Cylinder: you’re already here!

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