What makes a good drawer

A whole lot of making, installing and building drawers is making sure things are lined up and square. The following is the exact process I use to make, measure, and install drawer boxes. Before we can figure out drawer front sizes, we need to cover the different scenarios for drawer fronts. First, you need to determine whether your drawer fronts will be inset or overlay.

See this post for information on inset vs. The top drawer of this desk is inset with a frame notice it is surrounded on all sides by a frame. Notice the drawers are inset because they set inside the front of the cabinet. The bottom drawers are inset without a frame notice that the cabinet DOES have a face frame, but the individual drawers are not individually framed. Then we have full overlay drawers that are not framed in this instance. Notice the drawers hang OVER the sides of the cabinet and are not individually framed.

Part of this involves math, but part of it involves personal preference. Inset framed drawers are by far the easiest to figure. However, if the drawers are not individually framed you have options. And options complicate things. I want three drawers, so I need three drawer fronts. I want the two bottom ones equal size and the top one smaller.

Drawer boxes, even high-quality handmade boxes, typically have plywood bottoms. This is because plywood is flat, strong, and dimensionally stable it expands and contracts much less than solid wood. It's also much easier to cut a single piece of plywood to fit a drawer box than to glue up a bunch of hardwood planks. However, not all wood species are available in veneer plywood. If you can't find plywood that matches or complements your drawer box material, you might be faced with gluing up stock to create the bottoms.

That's a pretty time-consuming undertaking. There's nothing wrong with using a contrasting wood for the drawer sides. In fact, this can be a stylistic advantage. For example, combining a dark hardwood front with a lighter-colored wood like poplar for the drawer box can really highlight the joinery and workmanship. Contrasting wood colors look particularly good with joints like half-blind dovetails.

Poplar is a great all-around choice for drawer box construction. These small, standing puppets have a variety of joints that you can move into place and perfect human proportions. As such, they can be useful when trying to draw complex poses.

Simply put the doll into the right position and use it to sketch out your drawing, adding the details of your character later. They also make anatomically correct models of hands, heads, and the skeletal system as well, though they are often more expensive. Wooden dolls are a very useful tool for drawing, they are a great and cheap way of learning how to draw the body. Part 2. Know that contour drawing consists only of lines. Contours are the outlines of your drawings.

There is no blending or shading yet, just lines. Drawing good contour lines is essential for your final drawing, as this is where you give your drawing its shape and proportions. In general, contour lines are the first thing you do in a drawing. Give yourself guide lines. This is often overlooked by beginning artists who dive right into the work, but it is incredibly important to get accurate drawings.

For example, if you are drawing a large scene, start with faint lines that break your drawing up into thirds both horizontally and vertically. You should have nine small boxes on your page. These will help you to frame your drawing and put everything where it should be, giving you reference points as you work. Focus on proportions first. Proportion is the difference in size between two objects. If you draw your arms and legs out of proportion, for example, your drawing will look crude and lopsided.

Close one eye and line your pencil up with the subject. Your arm should be completely extended. Use your pencil as a ruler and mark the length of the object with your thumb.

You can then compare this distance with other objects on your page, or even use your pencil to mark out the specific distance on the page for your drawing. Do they take up the whole page, or a third of it? Sketch out the basics of each drawing before moving on.

There is no worse feeling than getting halfway done with a drawing and realizing that the arm of your character is much too short. Good drawers know how to avoid this by blocking out the drawing beforehand. Use simple shapes to mark the proportions of each object.

Keep adjusting these blocks until you feel confident in the pose and proportions of each item. Slowly add in the details to your contours. Add a layer of complexity with each draft. First it is guidelines and stick figures. Then you add in basic shapes and poses. Next, add in permanent lines over your outline, connecting the joints, adding facial features, etc.

Think about making the final contour of the body by connecting the joints so that you have a recognizable shape. Work slowly, making each line carefully and erasing when you are unhappy. You need your contour to be accurate in order for the final drawing to improve. Draw from the largest object down to the smallest. Never start a drawing at the details. This is where most artists get caught up early on, spending all of their time and energy on the small details while neglecting the larger proportions.

Practice perspective to give scenes realistic depth. Perspective is why far away objects appear small and nearby ones appear large. To get accurate drawings, you need to have accurate perspective. One way to practice is to use a perspective point. Think of this as the farthest point on the horizon, like the sun right before it sets.

Draw straight lines out from this point to match your drawings — anything closer to the dot is farther away, and thus smaller, and anything away from the dot is close to you. Draw two diagonal lines coming away from the dot.

Anything that fits between those two lines is the same size in real life, though perspective makes it appear as if they are different. Part 3. Know that shading give objects depth.

Shading is what makes a drawing pop and prevents it from feeling flat. A big part of the illusion of three-dimensions in good drawings is the shading.

But shading is tough to master, especially when you are trying to shade something from your imagination or memory. Shading can imply lines as well. Think about the two small ridges between your nose and upper lip. While you could draw lines for them, that would make them unrealistically pronounced. Think about the light sources. Shadows are created because they are exposed to less light then other parts of the scene.

Where the light is coming from, what type of light it is, and even the time of day will all affect your shadows. Shadows are created on opposite sides of the light.

For example, if you place a ball down and shine a light on it from the right, the left side of the ball will appear darker. This is where you would shade if you were drawing the ball. Note the edges of the shadow. The edge of the shadow is how quickly it disappears. For strength and ease of installation, quality kitchen cabinets have a durable, full-height back panel. A full back panel allows the cabinet to be directly attached to wall studs at any point on the cabinet back.

If installation requires the cabinet be cut around ductwork, plumbing or electrical, the modification will be simpler on the full back. Metal, rails, hang rails and picture-frame panels are all alternate cabinet backs. If a rail needs to be cut to accommodate wiring or plumbing, additional reinforcement will be necessary. The back is secured with hot glue, nails and a rabbet joint. Extending the panel from the top of the cabinet to the bottom eliminates gaps or spaces and provides additional strength.

CliqStudios knows the bottom of the drawer must support the weight of the drawer contents. Hardwood drawer boxes with dovetail joints have become the standard for American cabinetry. This is due to the long-lasting strength, durability and beauty of the dovetail joint. A wide range of materials and construction methods are used for cabinet drawers. Construction methods vary greatly and could include particleboard, plywood, metal or plastic elements.

Lesser quality cabinets have stapled particleboard drawer boxes. CliqStudios drawer boxes are made from solid hardwood with dovetail joints. A dovetail joint has teeth that interlock to join two pieces of wood. The sides meet at dovetail joints, where the strength of the joint comes from the wood itself. A strong plywood drawer bottom is glued and nailed in place.

Every drawer bottom is fully captured on all four sides in grooved joints. All of CliqStudios cabinets have soft-close door hinges with Certification. This means they have been tested to withstand 65 pounds of weight and operated through 25, open and close cycles. CliqStudios provides a limited lifetime warranty on all door hinges. There are thousands of hinges available to cabinet manufacturers.

Be wary of cabinet manufacturers that use low-end hinges. Many hinges only provide four-way adjustability or do not have a product warranty. They are 6-way adjustable, concealed, nickel plated steel, with a degree opening. They have a limited lifetime warranty. Certification assures you that the CliqStudios guides have been tested for quality.

Each drawer glide can withstand 15 pounds per square foot of drawer space. They can also be operated through 25, open and close cycles.

CliqStudios provides a limited lifetime warranty on drawer glides. Other brands use many different types of drawer glides, including epoxy-coated metal with nylon rollers. Center-mount and side-mount glides rarely provide full access. Partial-access means that about 25 percent of the drawer remains inside the cabinet. This makes it difficult to reach the back of the drawer.