A Dome is Half a Sphere!

I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent individual, yet sometimes the simplest, most obvious facts elude me. This is especially true in matters of art. Today I learned one of these simple truths:

A DOME IS HALF A SPHERE.

You knew that, right? I suppose at some level of awareness I knew it, too, yet when I reached into my “bag of blocks” and drew out today’s “wooden form”, I stared at it for a moment, thinking “What do I call this?” I then nodded and replied, “Oh, it’s a dome.”

Now, I have to be honest here. When I first pulled it out of the bag, my brain was saying “This is a half circle”, but somewhere between the ideas of shapes and forms, my neurons obviously short-circuited because when I picked up my pencil and sketchbook to begin drawing, my only thought was DOME, DOME, DOME. And how do you draw a dome?

I tried. I tried several times. I came up with lop-sided, assymetrical forms that looked nothing like the wooden block on my desktop. Finally, in frustration, I took to the internet, asking “How do we create symmetry when we’re drawing domes?”

I was rewarded with an awesome video on architectural drawing. I’m sharing the video here for the benefit of urban sketchers and architectural artists. As you know — especially if you read yesterday’s post on my problems with perspective, I am NOT an urban sketcher or architectural artist. All the same, it’s amazing to watch videos like this.

My idea of “a dome” was simply a little wooden block. Stephen Travers idea of a dome is an architectural wonder. For what it’s worth, I did NOT watch the entire video. I had no reason to. I will NEVER attempt to draw any such domes, and besides, I learned all I really needed to know in the opening sentence.

A DOME IS HALF A SPHERE.

With this knowledge, I was then able to create a circle — yes, I used the actual wooden block and traced around it to ensure symmetry — and with my circle drawn, I was then able to turn it into a half-circle, and then into a dome. And look! I even created the wooden texture of the block.

I think it’s a nice-looking dome, and trust me, this is the most complex, complicated “dome” I ever intend to draw.

I do like domes — architectural ones — and for those of you who can draw them, how awesome it must be to have such talent! I’ll happily draw my little “half-spheres”. For me, that’s an accomplishment.