Line Field / shape

Simplify a Chair into Planes

Separate seat, back and legs before texture.

The small question

Separate seat, back and legs before texture. This exercise asks you to check a visible relation rather than judge whether the whole sketch is good.

Try it in front of the subject

Draw a chair as a seat plane, back plane and four leg directions. Use light straight strokes to compare their angles. Add curves only after the large structure makes sense. Keep the first marks light enough that you can revise them after another look.

What this exercise cannot prove

A rear leg may be hidden. Drawing all four because a chair has four legs invents an edge the eye cannot see. Stop at the visible boundary. An example can suggest where to look, but the scene in front of you is the evidence for your drawing.

A second pass

Make a line-only chair sketch, then annotate which leg is obscured and by what. Keep the first attempt beside the revision so you can see which choice changed.

A field-note challenge

Check where the seat front edge meets each visible leg. Those junctions tell you more about the chair’s structure than wood grain does. If the back legs overlap from your seat, draw the overlap rather than spacing them evenly for symmetry.