To my readers who don’t live in the US, please pardon me for a second while I speak to those who do.
To my American readers, OMG!!! Did you just about melt last week or what!!!!!
While I started to form a puddle of melted-me during the largest heat wave to ever hit the United States, my mind turned to drawing. Rather than dwelling on my compulsive relationship with drawing though, I spent some time thinking about how to draw using the least amount of energy possible and my tub of wooden shapes came to mind.
These shapes are made out of wood, have a smooth finish, and are all the same tone making them great for drawing practice. Put a few of them together and you’re ready to draw some of the most common shapes in the world, and the more familiar you are with them at different angles and under all kinds of lighting situations, the easier you’ll be able to draw … well … everything.
Here’s the drawing I made from the wooden shapes. I just set them up within arm’s reach and didn’t pay very much attention to lighting because, as I mentioned, I was about to melt from the heat and needed to get to it quickly.
Before you get too excited and rush off to buy your own set of wooden shapes though, I have to tell you something. They’re very hard to find. It’s not because they’re rare or that stores don’t carry them. It’s simply because they’re not called what you think they should be.
But, hey, maybe that’s just my experience. If you want to try to guess what they’re called, I’ll put a spoiler alert in before I tell you. Go on and try Googling up some of these babies.
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***SPOILER ALERT***
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Here they are and they’re called Geometric Solids. I found them in the math department of a teaching supply store by accident. No one there knew what they were called, and I just happened to spot them on my way out.
As I was searching for them online for this post, I spotted these too. This set is called Plaster Castings – Set of Five Geometric Shapes and they really are meant for drawing. Unfortunately, they’re a tad expensive and someone left a bad review of them. (See link below.)
If you don’t want to fiddle around with hunting down actual live wooden shapes and you have an iPod or Pad or Phone or whatever, Enso Mobile has a series of apps called Cast Drawing 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each app has twenty photos that show the shapes through 360 degrees of rotation.
(FYI, Cast Drawing 1 is simple geometric shapes, Cast Drawing 2 is complex shapes, 3 is planes of the head, and 4 is the human form from casts of classic sculpture.)
Here’s the drawing I made from the Cast Drawing 1 on my iPod. Technically, I used the same process to draw from the iPod as I did from life, but it was more difficult to get started. I struggled to find lighting that would let me see the screen and the paper at the same time, but I finally did and after that I drew as I normally do.
I was able to pull out some nice form from the tiny iPod screen, but I’d much rather draw from life using my wooden shapes. I’m old and have bad eyes though. If you’re young and hip and have 20/20 vision, do give it a try.
Here are links to Amazon if you want check out geometric solids for yourself. I looked for them at Dick Blick, my usual friendly affiliate link partner, but I couldn’t … you know … find them.
If you want the app, search for “Cast Drawing” in the Apple App store.
Stay cool and keep drawin’ my friends!