How to draw a croissant

The aim of this project is to show the understanding of representation as a concept, as well as the ability to accurately use drawing equipment to measure and construct orthographic and axonometric projections of an object. This task also demonstrates basic skills on Photoshop. The readings were helpful for learning how to do acquire these skills.

Orthographic drawings allow form, depth, texture and perspective. Also, orthographic drawings and conventions are a fundamental part of communication in design as designers often have different areas of expertise. Therefore, the purpose of orthographic drawings is to provide a common ground for everyone involved, regardless of their specialisation.

I purchased a decent-sized croissant from Lune Croissanterie and set up a photo studio to take pictures of it from three different angles; plan view, long elevation and short elevation. After that, I made three cuts on the right half of my croissant, resulting in three proportional sections that were then scanned.

Then, I set up an A3 page on Adobe Photoshop to clean up and scale my croissant elevations and sections, making sure that they line up accurately. The brightness, saturation and contrast are also tweaked to look more appetising.

The image was printed out in colour and convention lines, as well as labels were added on by hand.

A gray scale version is printed out to trace over on tracing paper. First, I began shading in the lighter areas, then eventually moving on to hatch over the darker areas, simultaneously creating a gradient through blending the lighter and darker tones. The cut areas are filled black using fineliner, while the plan view is hatched completely in pen, with varying line lengths to convey the flaky texture.

The axonometric drawing was completed in three parts; first, I printed out the croissant base to draw the skewed sections and grids over on tracing paper. Then, on a separate piece of tracing paper, I drew the flat sections along with the grids, using my previous sections scans as reference. Lastly, I scanned all three sheets of paper and organised them together onto one page using Photoshop.

How to draw a croissant

Sheet 1

Sheet 2

Sheet 3