Sketching a series of tubes

Hey there,

For my current project I need to draw a bunch of irregularly shaped tubes that twist and bend in space. I’d like some help with depicting the turning shapes as well as marker technique for showing the form. Here are some quick pages that show what I’m talking about:

Thanks!



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Thanks for the response. I tried to take your advice and did a few practice underlays using a few different techniques. Some of them have good perspective, but I’m not sure if I’m connecting the ellipses right at the end…



some more pages.



and a few more



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So here’s a more freestyle exercise.

As you can see I use the centerline and sometimes a square in perspective to help orient and proportion the ellipse.
The orientation perpendicular to the centerline and width of the ellipse are very important.
To get the ‘ellipseness’ of the ellipse right just requires lots of practice - let the movement come from the shoulder, hover the pen with smooth motions towards the ellipse you want to draw and when you have the movement put down the ellipse in a single stroke - that is the idea.
Also for all transitions clearly mark and draw a profile where they start and end - as if you were 3D modeling the shape in your mind.

Keep practicing, you are doing good work.
And be sparse with the highlights.

Hey all,

Sorry for the big delay in response. Finals got the best of me for the past few weeks. I’ve been practicing and I think I am starting to make progress. Here are some of my practice sheets. I threw in some practice doodles that look at prismacolor marker caps. A couple weeks ago I got my hands on a copy of Sketching: The Basics. Wow! Great book. I love the fast and loose approach - leaving in construction lines, using light grey marker underlays, not being afraid to change a drawing in progress, so many different material approaches.



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