Drawing Fundamentals – Using Reference |Pencil Sharpener

As mentioned in previous posts, building your visual vocabulary is key to drawing your own creations.  In this video we are just going to explore how to draw something simple like a pencil sharpener.  All that is require is for you to take a found object around your house or office desk and try to draw the object.

For example, the hand held pencil sharpener I will be using for this demo can be broken down to a couple shapes:

1. Cylinder

2. Cones

So you will need to setup your perspective to be able to create ellipses correctly.  Surprisingly this was a little bit of a rough one for me to sketch because I had been out of practice for so long but none the less it was nice to sort of warm up and enjoy drawing.  So try to concentrate on setting up your primitive shapes and then create the details later.  One thing that I ended up having to correct after creating my primitive shapes was making sure that I had communicated the correct volume.

Even for something as seemingly simple like this shape, you can make mistakes.  I know I have when I go back and look at this video.  The key thing is to keep practicing and making sure you learn from the mistakes and keep marching forward.  Check out the video and let me know what you think and be sure to comment below!