Drawing garbage is actually kind of a rite of passage for artists. Honestly, if you can’t make a wastebasket look like it occupies three-dimensional space, you’re going to struggle when you move on to more "glamorous" subjects like architecture or human anatomy. Most people think they know how to draw a trash can, but then they sit down with a pencil and produce something that looks like a squashed rectangle or a weirdly warped trapezoid. It's about perspective. It’s about understanding that even the most mundane objects in our lives follow the strict rules of Euclidean geometry.
You’ve probably seen those old school metal bins in cartoons—the ones with the ridges and the rickety lids. They’re iconic. But today, we mostly deal with sleek plastic bins or industrial dumpsters. Each requires a slightly different approach to linework and shading.
The biggest mistake? Treating the top and bottom as straight lines. Unless you are looking at a trash can from a mile away through a telescope, those edges are curved. They are ellipses. If you nail the ellipse, you nail the drawing.
The Geometry of Garbage: Why Perspective Matters
Before you even touch the paper, you have to decide where your eye level is. In art school, they call this the "horizon line." If your eyes are above the trash can, you’re going to see the opening. If the can is sitting on a high shelf (for some reason), you’ll only see the bottom.
Most people draw from a standing position. This means you’re looking down at the bin.
When you start to draw a trash can, begin with a vertical centerline. This is your anchor. It keeps the whole thing from leaning over like it’s had too many drinks. From there, you sketch your ellipses. A common pitfall is drawing "football" shapes with pointy ends. Don’t do that. An ellipse is a continuous, smooth curve. The wider the bin, the rounder the ellipse.
Different Strokes for Different Bins
Not all trash cans are created equal. You have the classic "Oscar the Grouch" corrugated metal style, which is basically a cylinder with vertical ridges. Then you have the modern kitchen flip-top.
The metal bin is great for practicing texture. Those vertical lines aren't just straight stripes; they have to follow the curve of the cylinder. If you draw them perfectly straight from left to right, the bin will look flat. You have to wrap those lines around the form.
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Think about light. Light hits the ridges and creates tiny shadows in the grooves. It’s tedious but looks amazing when finished.
Step-by-Step: The Standard Kitchen Bin
Let's get practical.
Start by sketching a light rectangle. This defines the height and width.
Now, at the top of that rectangle, draw your first ellipse. This is the rim.
Do the same at the bottom, but make this ellipse slightly "flatter" than the top one if it's sitting on the floor. This is a quirk of perspective—the closer an ellipse is to your eye level, the flatter it looks.
Connect the sides.
Now you have a cylinder.
To make it look like a trash can and not just a pipe, add a lip to the top. A simple double line around the rim does the trick. If it’s a plastic bin, it might have a foot pedal. That’s just a small rectangular box at the base.
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Dealing With the Lid
Lids are tricky because they usually sit at an angle. If the lid is half-open, you’re dealing with a whole new set of perspective lines.
Professional illustrators often use "ghosting." They draw the entire lid as if it were transparent, then erase the parts that are hidden behind the bin. This ensures the hinges actually line up. There is nothing worse than a lid that looks like it’s floating three inches away from the container.
Shading and Materiality
A plastic bin reflects light differently than a galvanized steel one. Plastic has soft, diffused highlights. Steel has sharp, high-contrast reflections.
If you’re using a pencil, use a 2B for the general shape and a 4B or 6B for the deep shadows inside the can. The "inside" is usually the darkest part of the drawing because light struggles to bounce around in there.
- The Rim Shadow: There is almost always a small shadow cast by the rim onto the body of the can.
- The Ground Contact: Don't forget the "occlusion shadow" where the bin touches the floor. This is a very dark, thin line that grounds the object so it doesn't look like it's hovering.
- Reflected Light: On the dark side of the cylinder, there’s usually a faint strip of light near the edge. This is light bouncing off the floor and hitting the back of the can. Adding this makes your drawing look 10x more professional.
Common Mistakes People Make When Learning How to Draw a Trash Can
I see the same errors over and over. People get impatient. They want to get to the "cool" parts like the trash overflowing or the logo on the side, but they ignore the skeleton.
- Pointy Ellipses: As mentioned, avoid the lemon shape.
- Ignoring the Bottom: People often draw the top as a curve but the bottom as a straight horizontal line. This makes the bin look like it's warping into the floor.
- No Thickness: A trash can is made of material. The walls have thickness. Draw two lines for the rim, not one.
- Symetry Fail: If one side of the bin is 4 inches from the center, the other side must be 4 inches too. Use a ruler if you have to, but try to train your eye.
Adding the "Trash" to the Can
A clean, empty trash can is boring. If you want to tell a story, you need the contents.
Don't just draw generic scribbles. Think about shapes. A crumpled piece of paper is a series of jagged, angular planes. A soda can is a tiny version of the trash can itself. A banana peel is a set of floppy, organic curves.
The way objects hang over the edge tells the viewer about the volume. If a bag is sagging over the rim, it should follow the curve of that rim. Use "contour lines" to show the folds in the plastic bag.
The Industrial Dumpster
If you’re feeling ambitious, try a dumpster. This moves away from cylinders and into the world of rectangular prisms.
You’ll need to understand two-point perspective for this. The lines of the dumpster will recede toward two different vanishing points on the horizon. Dumpsters are great for practicing "weathering." You can add rust, dents, and grime. Use a stippling technique (tiny dots) to create the look of rusted metal or dried-on dirt.
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Why This Simple Exercise Actually Makes You a Better Artist
Drawing mundane objects is the gym workout of the art world. You aren't doing it because you’re obsessed with garbage; you’re doing it to master the fundamentals.
When you learn how to draw a trash can correctly, you’re learning how to see. You’re learning that a circle becomes an oval when tilted. You’re learning how light wraps around a curved surface. These skills translate directly to drawing heads, limbs, and complex machinery.
Actually, if you look at the work of master draftsmen like Scott Robertson or Kim Jung Gi, they spend an enormous amount of time on basic primitives. Boxes, cylinders, and spheres. A trash can is just a cylinder with a personality.
Actionable Next Steps for Improvement
- Go to your kitchen: Don't look at a photo. Look at your actual trash can. Sit on the floor so you're at a different angle.
- Sketch the "Wireframe" first: Spend five minutes just drawing the ellipses and the centerline. Don't worry about shading yet.
- Limit your values: Try to finish a drawing using only three tones: the white of the paper, a mid-gray, and a deep black. This forces you to be smart about where you place shadows.
- Practice "Overlapping": Draw one trash can behind another. This teaches you how to handle depth and spatial relationships.
Once you’ve mastered the basic structure, try varying the proportions. Make a tall, skinny office bin or a short, wide recycling crate. The more you vary the "primitive" shapes, the more comfortable you’ll get with 3D construction in your head.
Start by drawing five different cylinders today. Just five. Make them different widths and heights. By the fifth one, the "football ellipse" habit should be gone. From there, adding the rim and the lid of a trash can is just a matter of adding detail to a solid foundation.
Focus on the curve of the base. If that line isn't parallel in perspective to the top rim, the whole drawing will fall apart. Keep your pencil lead sharp for the rim details and blunt for the broad shading areas. Practice the transition from dark to light on the curved surface of the bin to create the illusion of roundness.