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Computer program

I'm old school. Pen and paper. I often make sketches and then may refine it for the final drawing. I do this mostly for spindles and finials. I find that if I design it first, even roughly, the end product is usually better than if I design while turning. Hollow vessels are too dependant on the grain and figure in the wood to decide up front what shape it will be. I might start out with an idea but quite often I make subtle changes as I turn based on how the wood is showing itself. Of course I'm not computer literate and the drawing programs I tried were not intuitive to me at all.
 
go to library check out Roman, Greek, Egyptians, American indian pottery and sculpture.....find something you like
 
Charlie makes a good point
One of my best woodturning books was south western pottery

I used Apple Pencil to make a sketch of how I do pitcher forms from a half 1/4 log.
Note the log is not round.
Mostly I want an idea for the rim diameter what the height will be after I use 1 1/4 for the faceplate.
I can get a notion of where the sapwood will show.

I do a refinement of the shape when roughing between centers.

53B5A10E-C8CB-470E-9B10-2A0925DD4F32.jpeg
 
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I use an old version of AutoCAD on my laptop. Makes it very easy to draw up all the layers of a segmented bowl and gives you all the needed dimensions for each segment. Sectional views and Face views of an item are a snap once you are used to the program. Its all done by picking an icon like "draw a line" or "draw a circle" or "draw an arc". Enter the size dimensions and there it is. Save it and print it on your printer.
 
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