How to Draw Perfect Ovals & Ellipses with Drawing Lessons & Tutorials

Learn how to draw figures & objects with circles, ovals, and ellipses with the following drawing tutorials.

Drawing Spheres, Circles, and Ellipses

How to Draw and Shade Spheres as well as how to draw circles and ellipses.

Drawing Circles and Ellipses in Correct Proportions

Today the lesson will be about drawing circles in perspective. When you are freehand drawing, you just look at the object and draw the items as you see them.

Drawing an Ellipse in Perspective

An ellipse is simply a circle seen in perspective. This is an important concept to keep in mind. An ellipse, therefore, must conform to the same rules as a circle - it consists of arcs, it contains no straight lines and, if divided into quarters, each segment is identical to the other three.

Drawing an Ellipse

Many people mistake ovals for ellipses. Ovals are made up of two circles connected on their sides by parallel lines. Ovals are what they use for race tracks. That way you can have "straight-aways". Ellipses have no straight sides. Their perimeters are constantly curved according to a mathematical formula. The earth travels an elliptical orbit around the sun, one of the interesting natural facts that we can enjoy. The cause of this is gravitational, of course.

Draw an Oval With a Compass

It will take some practice to get the squiggly lines right; so there will be more of this. I hope to get permission to post some details of the originals, (the detail above is an outlaw, hence no context) the paint that survives on them is quite striking…

Draw an Ellipse Using String and 2 Pins

A practical way to draw an ellipse when mathematical precision is not so important, but if you are careful, you can get fairly close. It is sometimes called the "Gardener's Ellipse", because it works well on a large scale, using rope and stakes, to lay out elliptical flower beds in formal gardens.

Laying Out An Ellipse in Woodworking Projects

There is often confusion between an oval and an ellipse, technically an ellipse is an oval, but for designing woodworking projects they are thought of as two distinct shapes. The defination of an ellipse seems to take pages of complicated formulas.

How to Draw an Oval Shape - An oval has an oblong shape and it is made up of two pairs of arcs. A proportional oval can be difficult to draw by hand and cannot be easily replicated using a compass. However, you can fashion your own oval-drawing tool with string and a few pins, which will allow you to draw a handsome oval every time.

How to Draw an Ellipse - Using a couple of tacks, a string, a pencil and some practice you can draw large and small ellipses. Follow the instructions below to draw an ellipse.