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The Problem

Even if we have seen a football many times we still have to rely on how we had observed the shape and the different types of coloured patches on the ball. Also of course one of the difficulties of drawing is that we are trying to put on two-dimensional (2D) paper a representation of a 3D object, so perspective is also needed.

Three real life photographs of drawings of 'footballs' are shown below. Two are from street signs around the UK, and the last is from a shop window display (the shop was selling black-and-white photos of old football teams). It’s obvious that they all tried to draw what they thought was a football but it’s also obvious that they all failed in a fundamental way – they look flat, not round.

Please don't be put off or depressed if your football looked like one of these. Until we understood the structure of the football we made similar drawings.

Three Football Signs

From left to right: i) a football club sign, ii) road sign and iii) from a shop window display. Notice that in the first sign vandals have tried to scratch out the football - they must have known!