How To Draw A Chair Conformation

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Let's face it, chair cyclohexanes are not a shape that comes naturally for anyone to draw. That's why youneed a system to get them right. Here is how to draw chair conformations in 39 seconds…

How to draw chair conformations… in 39 seconds!

Stop drawing bad chairs!

Get chair cyclohexane templates, as seen in the video above, to get better at drawing chair conformations!

Is that all there is to it?

Yep, that's it! Just three pairs of parallel lines and you've drawn a perfect chair conformation. But, to draw them naturally, to get them flowing off your pen and onto the page perfectly at exam time, you're gonna need to practice. A lot…

I am the worst artist – I never progressed beyond stick figures, and even my stick figures aren't very good! So, drawing organic molecules well definitely didn't come naturally to me. What really works for me, though, is having an algorithm to follow. And then practising that algorithm until it comes naturally.

Funny thing is – I quite like drawing cyclohexane chair conformers now. 🙂

So,… what are you waiting for? Start practicing!!

And once you've mastered the art of the chair, watch this video to avoid the 2 most common mistakes with drawing axial and equatorial substituents:

The 'team' is Dr. Mark Coster. :) Mark makes stuff.

When he's not making stuff, he's teaching other people how to make stuff. Mark was one of those kids who loved nothing more than to build things out of Lego. He still feels that joy, but now his 'stuff' is molecules that he builds from atoms.

He occasionally writes biographies in third person. ;)

And he still likes Lego too.

Organic Chemistry Explained