Drill 05Draw the other half

Draw the other half

Half a vase is on screen. Draw the missing half, and your side gets folded across the centre line onto the given one — so you see the gap rather than being told about it, at every height from the rim to the foot.

Measures your half against the given oneRuns on your deviceFree and unlimitedWant a real drawing checked?

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Half a vase is drawn. Draw the missing half, from the rim down to the foot.

Match the width at every height. Start on the top of the given half and finish on its foot.

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How it works

What it can name

The faults, drawn

A percentage on its own tells you nothing you did not already know. These are the separable problems the measurement identifies — each with a different fix, which is the whole reason for telling them apart. Every example below is a real stroke, generated by the same code that tests the engine.

  • Narrow half

    The most reliable result in this exercise. You are judging a width across a gap with nothing beside your pen to compare against, and an unsupported estimate of distance runs short. It is the same effect that makes the second eye smaller than the first.

  • Wide half

    Less common than running narrow, and usually a sign of drawing from the elbow: when the reference is on the far side of the page the hand reaches past it rather than falling short.

  • Right widths, wrong heights

    The neck and the belly are the correct sizes and both sit too high. Point for point it reads as a large error; slide the half down and it disappears. Copying a shape and reading a proportion are different skills, and this is what separates them.

  • Comes apart on the way down

    Accurate at the rim and out by the foot. Every part of a long profile gets judged against the part just drawn rather than against the half being copied, so the error accumulates.

  • Does not close

    The two halves have to meet at the rim and at the foot — those are the only places a silhouette must agree exactly. Easing off before the end is the same instinct that leaves gaps at the corners of a box.

Two tools, two questions

What this drill looks at

This drill · your line

Measures your half against the one you were given — the width you drew at every height, whether it leans consistently one way, and whether the neck and belly landed at the right heights.

The number is arithmetic. The finding is not: which fault a set of measurements adds up to, and which fix it takes, is how drawing has been taught for a century. The instrument locates it; the teaching names it.

  • Instant, exact, and the same answer every time
  • Free and unlimited — it costs nothing to run
  • Runs on your device; your drawings never leave it
  • Cannot tell you whether the drawing works

Rate My Sketch · your drawing

Coach Luna checks a real drawing — a photo of your sketchbook or a screenshot — and marks the corrections onto the image itself.

She measures technique against what you were drawing: proportion versus your reference, shading, the joins. Never your creativity, your style or your subject — those are not hers to grade.

  • Five technique scores, and the single fix to make first
  • Three free every day, no account needed
  • Generates nothing and never redraws your work
  • Slower, and needs something real to look at
Have your drawing checked

The two scores are different measurements and are not meant to agree. A circle can be geometrically excellent inside a drawing that does not work, and a drawing can work with shaky circles all through it. Use the drills to build the hand, use the critique to find out what the drawing needs next, and when you want the rest taught properly — construction, form, light, composition — that is what the Sketching Essentials course is for.

Is this the one you need?

Take all 7 drills and get a profile

About 5 minutes. It names your weakest skill and sends you to the drill that measures exactly that.

How the number is made

What the score actually measures

Width match

mean |your half-width − given half-width| ÷ widest half-width36% of the score

The exercise. Your side is compared to the given one at ninety-six heights, so a gap anywhere shows up rather than averaging away.

Lean

mean SIGNED difference ÷ widest half-width24% of the score

Whether the misses share a direction. This is the interesting one: nearly everybody draws the second half narrow, and the number tells you by how much.

Feature height

the vertical slide that best fits your profile onto the given one16% of the score

Whether your widths are right but in the wrong places. If sliding your half up or down makes the error disappear, the neck and belly were the correct sizes and simply misplaced.

Steadiness

slope of the error from rim to foot14% of the score

Whether you started accurate and came apart. A growing error is a different fault from a uniform one and needs the opposite correction.

Closing

distance from each end to the given half10% of the score

Whether the two halves actually meet at the rim and the foot. A silhouette is a closed shape and those are the only two places its halves must agree exactly.

Weighted toward matching the width and toward the direction of your misses, because a consistent lean is the fault this exercise exists to expose and the one people cannot see in their own work. Every threshold, and the evidence behind it.

The technique

Draw the other half of a symmetrical object

  1. 01

    Mark the heights first

    Put a tick on your side level with the narrowest part of the neck, the widest part of the belly and the foot. Three heights carry the whole shape.

  2. 02

    Carry two widths across

    Measure the given half at the neck and at the belly, and mark the same distances on your side of the axis. Do not trust your eye for these.

  3. 03

    Draw through the marks

    One pass from the rim down to the foot, going through your marks rather than aiming at them.

  4. 04

    Check back before you finish

    Glance across at the given half at the belly and again at the foot. Correcting mid-stroke is cheaper than redrawing.

Why the second half comes out narrow

It is the most reliable result in this exercise, and it surprises almost everybody who gets it. You are judging a width across a gap, with nothing beside your pen to compare against, and an unsupported estimate of distance runs short. It is not a drawing problem; it is how estimation works.

The same effect shows up everywhere once you know its shape. The second eye comes out smaller than the first. The far side of a face is narrower than it should be. The right-hand half of a symmetrical building loses a window’s worth of width. In each case the first half was measured against something real and the second was measured against a memory.

The fix is mechanical and takes about four seconds: carry two widths across the axis with your pen before you commit to anything. Not because your eye is bad, but because it has nothing to work with.

Right widths, wrong heights

The other interesting result, and a more advanced one. Your neck is the correct width and your belly is the correct width, and both of them sit too high. Point for point that reads as a large error everywhere; slide your half down and it vanishes.

This is what happens when the eye tracks the outline rather than the landmarks. Copying a shape and reading a proportion are different skills, and this exercise separates them: it is entirely possible to be excellent at the first and poor at the second, and the score alone would never tell you which.

If you get this result, the fix is not to draw more carefully. It is to mark three heights before you draw anything at all.

What the fold shows you

When you finish, your half is folded across the centre line onto the given one and the mismatch is filled in. This is deliberate and it is the point of the exercise: a number tells you that you were four percent narrow, and the fold shows you where.

It is the same idea as extending the edges of a box to see whether they meet. The measurement is exact either way — but a person acts on what they can see, and almost nobody acts on a percentage.

When you have got it

Both halves within about two percent of each other for width, with no consistent lean either way, on a vase you drew without stopping to measure more than twice.

Questions

Why is my half always narrower than the given one?

Because you are judging a width across a gap with nothing beside your pen to compare against, and an unsupported estimate of distance runs short. It is the commonest result in this exercise by a wide margin, and it is fixed by carrying two widths across the axis with your pen before you draw.

Does the given half stay visible?

Yes, the whole time. This is not a memory test — what is being measured is whether you can match a width you can see, and hiding the reference would measure something else entirely.

Which side do I draw on?

The empty one. The drill works out which side your ink is on, so there is nothing to set.

Do I need a tablet for this?

No. It works with a mouse or a finger, and the measurement scales to your input device so a phone is not scored more harshly than a desktop.

Next drill

A box in perspective

Draw a box in perspective, and draw through it — all twelve edges.

Drew something real?

Rate My Sketch

These drills measure geometry. For a drawing with a subject in it, Luna scores five technique dimensions and marks the corrections on your image.