How to Draw a Star

Lay a ruler across the middle of your page and draw a light, straight line. Any length works, and it does not have to be level. BrickPredator uses a flat Lego plate as his straightedge, which is a good reminder that anything with a clean edge will do. Put a small dot at each end. Those two end points are what the compass works from next.

Open your compass to a bit more than half the length of the line. Put the point on the left end and swing an arc above the line and another below it. Keep the same width, move the point to the right end, and swing two more arcs. They will cross the first ones. Those two crossing points sit exactly above and below the middle of your line.

Line your ruler up with the top crossing and the bottom crossing and draw a line between them. It passes through the middle of the baseline at a right angle. You now have a neat cross. The spot where the two lines meet is the centre of your star, so mark it with a small dot.

Put the compass point on the centre of the cross and draw a full circle. Pick any size you like. BrickPredator makes his radius about half the baseline, but bigger is easier for a first try. This circle is the outline your five star points will sit on, so turn the compass in one smooth motion.

Now split the left half of the horizontal line in two, the same way you split the baseline. Swing arcs above and below from the left edge of the circle, then from the centre. Draw a light line through the two X shapes. Where it crosses the horizontal line is the midpoint of the radius. Mark it clearly.

Put the compass point on that midpoint. Open the pencil leg until it touches the top of the circle, where the vertical line meets it. Now swing the pencil down to the right until it crosses the horizontal line on the right side. Make a small tick there. That tick is how you get five equal sides without any measuring.

Place the compass point on the top of the circle. Open or close it until the pencil sits right on the tick you made on the horizontal line. This distance is the side length of your star's pentagon. Be careful here. The creator stresses that a tiny error now gets multiplied five times as you go around.

Keep that width. Starting from the top point, make a small tick where the compass crosses the circle on the right. Move the point to that tick and mark the next one. Keep walking around. You will get five ticks, including the top. If the last tick lands on the top point, your spacing is right.

Lay the ruler from one point to the point two places over, skipping the one between. Draw a firm line. Do the same from the next point. Each line cuts across the circle and they cross each other in the middle. This skip-one rule is what turns five points into a star instead of a pentagon.

Keep going until all five lines are drawn. The last one closes the shape and your five-point star appears, sitting inside the circle with every point equally spaced. If you want a clean star, ink the outline with a fine black marker, let it dry, and erase the circle and the guide lines.