How to Draw Anything Using Shapes and Angles

Learning to draw is simply a matter of learning to break objects into smaller shapes in your mind, and then making adjustments to add details. This tutorial will show you how to draw anything using shapes and angles.

Things You'll Need

• Pen or pencil
• Paper
• Household objects

Instructions

1. 

   Start by choosing a simple household item such as a cereal box from your pantry. Examine the box and break it into little shapes. While it might look like you can just draw a rectangle and have a cereal box, if you look closely you will see the box is made up of a series of shapes.

2. 

   Make a set of straight lines to represent each side of the box. Then make a set of angled lines following the same slant of the actual box in front of you. From there you make another set of angled lines going in the direction of the corners of the box. Finally, make lines that are parallel with the top and side of the box.

3. 

   Choose a more interesting item based on circles like this mug, for example. Examine the mug and look for different shapes in the cup.

4. 

   Draw the different shapes of the mug such as the ellipse at the top, the lines of the side and the curved line at the bottom. Once that is done, look more closely at how the lines are angled on the cup and make adjustments.

5. 

   Choose an item that is more difficult like this wine glass. Once again examine it closely picking out different shapes in your mind. You can see there are circles, and rectangles in the glass. Start out drawing the simple shapes of the glass, such as the ellipse at the top, and at the bottom. Then draw the rectangle stem and rounded top.

6. 

   Look at the angles of the glass more closely. You will see that the stem curves up, so make those corrections. You will also see that the top of the glass in angled in, so make those corrections as well.

Tips & Warnings

• No matter what you are drawing, first start with the basic shapes of the item. Look for circles, squares, triangles and rectangles and transfer that to the paper. Next, look at the angles on those items and make adjustments.

• As you get better at drawing individual items, combine them and practice drawing them together in a collage grouping.