How to Draw a 3D Cube and Sphere

Shading

3D Cube

Materials:

2B pencil Paper Ruler Value Scale

Steps:

1. Draw a 5cmx5cmm square. This is square A.

Tip: A square has four 90 degree angles where each two sides meet.

Use the corner of your ruler to ensure you create these 90 degree

angles.

2. Now draw another 5cmx5cm square slightly higher and to the

left of the first square, making sure the two squares overlap.

This is square B. You should now have three points on square B

outside of square A, and one (bottom right) inside square A.

3. Using a ruler, draw lines to connect each corner of square A to

the corresponding corner of square B. What you now have is a

transparent cube.

4. Erase the three lines which emerge from the one point we have

in square A.

A Bit More About Shading Elements That Create 3D Shapes Before we do though, I would just like to introduce you to Highlights, Shadows and Mid-

tones.

These are essentially your building blocks for creating depth and texture within a pencil

drawing.

Highlight—This part of the subject will be the part which is directly facing the light source.

Shadow—This part of the subject will be the part which is facing away from the light source.

Mid-tone—This part of the subject will be the part which is neither directly facing the light

source, or the part facing away from the light source. It is the bit in the middle.

With our shading guide, this is how the highlight, shadow and mid-tone would look.

We are going to add these tones to our new 3D cube we have created.

Steps to Shading

1. First we will add the highlight. This is the side of the

cube facing the light. In this case it is the front which I have

labelled Side 1.

For this we will use shade 3 on our Shading Guide.

2. Next, we will add the shadow. This is the side of

the cube facing away from the light.

For this we will use shade 7 on our Shading Guide.

3. And finally, we will add the mid-tone. This is the

side of the cube which is neither in the light or the

shadow. It is in the middle.

For this we will use shade 5 on our Shading Guide.

And there you have it! …a very basic, but effective

3D drawing.

Drawing A 3D Sphere

In the last drawing tutorial, Creating Depth With 3D Drawing, we created a cubic shape using

the origin point and the three axis.

A 3D Sphere is different because unlike a cube we have no origin point or axis to work from, so

we have to use a bit of our own common sense and imagination for this one, so you will need

to get your creative juices flowing.

We also learned about highlights, shadows and mid-tones. We will be using these again, but

we will also be introducing two more tones; core shadows and cast shadows.

These two tones are basically the building blocks you will use to create a shadow effect of the

subject.

When we finish this 3D Sphere tutorial you should end up with something like this.

On this diagram you can see all the tones we have already learned about, as well as the two

new ones.

How To Draw A 3D Sphere

Materials:

o Your 2B pencil

o A sheet of paper

o A Ruler

o Putty Rubber or eraser

o Your Shading Guide

o Your Blending Tool --Tortillon

o A round shape to trace.

1.) Place your round shape onto the sheet of paper, and in

a light outline, draw around it.

You will be left with a perfect circle.

2.) Next, decide from which direction you will place your

light-source.

For the sake of following this tutorial, I suggest the upper-

right hand side.

3.) Using your ruler, very lightly mark out a guideline straight

from the light-source to approximately 1cm inside the circle.

This is where we are going to place the center of our highlight.

4.) In a very light outline draw a small oval shape around the

point we have marked as the center of our highlight.

5.) Now grab your round shape again, and place it so the

opposite side of the light-source can just be seen, creating an

eclipse effect. Mark this out in a light outline.

This is where our shadow will be.

6.) Repeat this process four more times, moving towards the

light-source, and making each eclipse shape slightly wider than

the last.

You should stop when you get about half way across the circle.

These will be the mid-tones.

7.) You will notice that the ends of these eclipses don’t follow the

spherical shape once you get about half way.

You can correct this yourself by simply bending the ends to follow

the shape of the circle.

8.) For the last few mid-tone guidelines you will need to do this

freehand.

The easiest way is to use the oval we created for the highlight as

a guide, and work your way out to create three oval shapes.

You can leave a wide gap in the middle. You should now have 10

separate eclipses.

9.) In the eclipse shape we decided to use as our shadow, using

your Shading Guide and the Pencil Techniques we have learned

in previous tutorials, shade this in a 10.

You should now have something like this.

10.) Sticking with your shading guide, shade the next eclipse

in a 9.

The next in an 8, and so on until you have shaded the last

eclipse in a 2, and the highlight oval is left untouched (shade

1).

11.) Next, use your blending tool and the scumbling technique

to blend the different tones together.

Remember to work from the lightest part to the darker parts

to avoid adding too much lead to parts we don’t need it.

12.) Now we are going to add the Cast Shadow. This is where

the subject (3D Sphere) is obstructing the light-source from

getting to, so we will place this directly opposite to our light-

source.

13.) Now we can add our core

shadow. This is the part of

the image where absolutely no light can reach, such as the very base of the subject. Use the

diagram to add your core shadow in a shade of 10.

14.) Now we have the core

shadow in place, and a rough

guideline for our cast shadow, we

can shade this area in, gradually

moving downwards from a shade

10 (core shadow) to a shade 1,

where the light-source can reach.

15.) Using your blending tool

and a scumbling technique,

blend the shadow tones

together.

16.) We have now nearly finished

our 3D Sphere.

All we have left is to add some

more highlights, and the outline.

So using a piece of putty rubber or

eraser formed into a point, dab

away any lead which may have

been smudged or blended in our

original ovals highlight, and match

the tones up smoothly around it if

need be. You may also wish to use

your blending tool again here to

smooth the lead out.

17.) Another place to add some

highlights using your putty rubber is

on the left side of the 3D sphere

near the shadow. This is because

the light bounces off the surface

and reflects back on to the subject.

18.) The final part is to add our heavy outline. This is important to help the image stand out

from the page, so take your time.