How to Draw a Box

Hi everyone. Welcome to Art Look Learn. We have a really great lesson today. We are going to learn how to draw a box in 3 dimension and learn how to shade it in. Let’s get started.

Go ahead and start by drawing a square and then another square behind it. Just leave the corner overlapping. Then connect the corners. There you have a basic square, a basic box or a cube.

I am going to repeat this, the same steps drawing a square behind another square. Now this time I’m going to erase the the lines that go behind the actual 3D object. So it will look like a box.

One really great thing about drawing a box, learning how to draw a cube or a box really well is because you can use them in all sorts of things for starting out in drawing other objects such as tables, furniture, houses, cars buildings, and many other common objects.

So after you have practiced it a few times you can start drawing your box just by drawing the front square and then drawing lines straight out from behind it. Then skipping the step of drawing two squares and then connecting the corners.

Now add a little shading in. So I’m imaging my light is hitting the box on the left hand side so I’m shading in the right hand side, fairly dark. And just a little bit of shading on the top.

And adding some shadow. The shadow is always going to go opposite of where the light is hitting so this shadow will sit on the same side that is shaded in.

Now don’t limit yourself just to squares. You can do this with any other type of rectangle shape.

Keep practicing them. You can do them from your imagination as well as from life. You can aways set up your own still life with your own box and look at it and try to draw what you see.

And just a little bit of shadow here on the right, again.

Now that is exactly what we are going to do next. We are going to look at this box, a photo of a box that I took and practice drawing what we are actually seeing.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, it is all just, just practice to get better at making lines and making marks.

Turn your paper if you need to, to make it easier to draw your lines or your shading. I can also turn my pencil on the side and push down from the top. That way I can cover a lot of area all at once with the shading. 

If needed I can go over this all again to get a nice dark smooth shade. And touch up with my eraser as needed, if I go outside of the lines.

A little bit of shading here on the top. For this box I am drawing the light is hitting the front of the box. This righthand side is going to get a little bit of shadow right next to it.

Just a smidge more shadow, a dark line right where the box meets the table. And then add a horizon line. If I wanted I could add in a little bit background. 

That is basically it.

Thanks for joining me in this fun and informative art class. I hope you learned something. Please make sure to leave all your questions comments and reviews and share with all your friends.

Thank so much. Bye-bye.