How to Draw a Circle

Learning how to draw a circle is a very important artistic skill. Many objects are made up of circles, including wheels, rings, oranges and faces. If you can successfully draw a circle, you will have the ability to draw many different objects. Follow these simple steps to help you learn how to draw a circle.

Things You'll Need

• Drinking glass
• Pencil
• Paper

Instructions

1. Place a drinking glass with its open end flat on a sheet of a paper.

2. Trace around the opening of the drinking glass with a pencil.

3. Remove the glass from the paper, and you will see that you have drawn a circle on the paper.

4. Follow and trace the circle on the paper with your pencil many times. You will see that you may go off the original circle's line and draw circles that aren't perfectly round, but with continued practice, you will learn how to accurately draw a round circle.

5. Draw a circle on your own. You will likely notice that the circle you drew is not perfectly round. Continue to practice drawing a circle. Eventually, you will find success.

6. Learn to draw a circle using string and a pencil. To do this, tie a piece of string around a pencil (near the pencil point). Hold the string with one hand straight out some distance away from the pencil. The distance that you hold the string away from the pencil will be the radius of the circle. Then, put the string down on the paper where you would like to have the center of the circle. Holding the string taught, use the attached pencil to draw a circle around the point where the string touches the paper.

Tips & Warnings

• Use drinking glasses of various diameters and sizes to help you practice drawing different-sized circles.

• Once you can draw a circle, you may want to try learning how to draw an ellipse. An ellipse is a circle that is wider than it is higher.

• Other ways to draw circles include using a compass and using a protractor.