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lines, and sharpen the outside edges of the drawing by darkening the outline. This will thrust the image out away from the background. Finish shading the left side of the box and inside the box, away from your light source. I always encourage you to have fun with these lessons by adding lots of extra details, neat little ideas you creatively conjure up to spice up your drawing. I’ve put a few small items in the box, just barely visible. Notice how even these little details add a lot of visual flavor and fun to the sketch.

Lesson 5: Bonus Challenge
    Speaking of adding extra details to enhance your drawing, let’s expand on the cardboard box lesson. How about a treasure box overflowing with pearls, coins, and priceless loot? We are all so stressed about the economy, our mortgage payments, and health insurance premiums, so let’s take a reality vacation and draw our own wealth.
     
     
    1. Beginning with our basic cube, go ahead and draw in the Drawing Direction Reference Cube direction lines for good practice and memory imprint. Slant the sides in just a bit.

    2. Draw two parallel lines slightly opening the top of the treasure chest.
     
     
    3. Using the lines you have already drawn (sound familiar?) as reference, draw the top edge of the lid in the NW direction.

    4. Draw the near curving edge of the lid.
     
    5. Using the lines you have already drawn (am I sounding repetitive?) as a reference, draw the top edge of the lid in direction NW. Notice how I slanted my top edge line a bit more than a direction NW line. This is because eventually all these NW direction lines will converge on a single vanishing point. I will explain this vanishing-point concept in great detail in a later lesson. For now, just follow my steps and slant your top edge line a bit more.

    6. Draw the two inside “peeking” lines. This is our “BAM” punch-out in 3-D moment; you’ve got to love this!

    7. Detail your drawing. Clean up any extra lines. Position your light source and add shading to all the opposite surfaces, darken the undershadows, and draw the cast shadow. Enjoy drawing the extra details to this lesson. Draw overflowing money, jewels, and pearls to your heart’s content!

Student examples
    Take a look at how these students added some great bonus details to this lesson.

LESSON 6
    STACKING TABLES

    T his is a fun and rewarding lesson that was inspired by my fifth-grade art teacher, Bruce McIntyre (Mr. Mac). His enthusiasm for teaching kids how to draw had a profound and lasting effect on me. This lesson will gel all of the concepts and laws we have been discussing so far into one very cool three-dimensional drawing. Did I mention this is a really fun lesson? I bet that you will enjoy it so much that you will be stacking cubes on every scrap of paper that happens to be within your reach.
     
    1. Begin with a strong foreshortened square. Remember, I urge you to use the guide dots for all the lessons in this entire book. I know you are feeling very confident with your foreshortened squares, boxes, and cubes. However, humor me and use the guide dots each and every time. There is a solid reason for this, which I’ll explain in detail in a later lesson. Trust me, young grasshopper; all will be revealed in time.

    2. Draw two short edges to create the top of the table.

    3. Draw the middle line longer, using what extremely important drawing concept?
     
     
    4. Using the lines you have already drawn as reference, draw the bottom of this table top in directions NE and NW.

    5. Draw the middle line longer to create the near edge of the table post.

    6. Draw the sides of the table post as I have done. Notice how each side line is drawn halfway from the far edge to the middle line. Look at my example. This is definitely a case where a picture is better than a bunch of words.
     
     
    7. Using the lines you have already drawn as reference (I’m actually going to start cutting and pasting that sentence in each of these steps!), draw the