Drawing Ellipses

An ellipse is a circle that is not viewed straight on. When you look across the face of the circle, it is foreshortened and we see an ellipse. No matter what degree of angle the ellipse is viewed from, one dimension will always remain constant with the circle. The axis is a straight line that runs through the middle of the circle or ellipse, upon which it rotates like a spinning coin.

Image

Here are a number of ellipses at various degrees of angles. Notice that the height is constant with the circle on the left.

It is important to draw ellipses correctly—if not, any object they are a part of will appear distorted. The top of a ...

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