How to Read Contour Lines in Drawings
Have you heard about contour line fine art but aren't sure what it is? The skilful news is that you've likely already made dozens, maybe fifty-fifty hundreds, of contour line drawings throughout your life without realizing information technology! Profile drawing is one of the easiest and most effective means to ameliorate your hand-eye coordination and drawing skills. In this guide, nosotros explain what profile lines in fine art are and how you brand contour line art. Nosotros besides suggest different contour drawing exercises and so yous can keep improving your skills. Contour line art is a method of drawing where you depict only the outline of an object, without any shading. "Profile" really means "outline" in French, which is where the name comes from. For instance, if yous wanted to do a profile line drawing of a pear, you'd simply draw the outline of the pear, add a stalk, and finish in that location. Some contour drawings will include outlines of of import interior shapes (such every bit wrinkles in cloth or objects on a bookshelf), but contour drawings will never comprise shading or infinitesimal details. Because you lot're focusing on just the shape of an object and not any small details, profile line art is a great drawing method for beginning artists besides as those looking for some quick drawing exercises. Children, as well every bit people without a lot of feel drawing, typically make profile line drawings without realizing it, simply because this method is one of the easiest and quickest ways to brainstorm drawing. Even so, just because contour line art is easy to start doesn't hateful it's only meant for beginner artists or those who don't take the skills to practice more detailed drawings. Contour line art has many uses, even for highly-experienced artists. Many artists will begin a project with a contour line drawing to get a quick sense of the piece's composition, so they'll later get dorsum and add more details. Contour line fine art is also a expert mode to become more skilled at replicating the outline of an object and developing hand-middle coordination (which we'll explicate more about in the next section). If y'all tin can't create potent and accurate outlines of an object, the piece will still look unfinished or slightly "off" even if y'all add together in lots of details and embellishments. Professional person artists accept used contour art for centuries. Cartoonists often use contour art in their finished pieces, the aboriginal Greeks used it when decorating vases, and da Vinci oft fabricated contour line drawings when doing figure studies. It'south an essential skill that every artist should know and do regularly. The image on the left is an case of contour line fine art. The image on the right is NOT because it includes shading. In order to go the well-nigh from your profile line drawing exercise, follow these four steps when making contour art. For your first contour drawing, we recommend choosing just 1 object to draw, as this will exist easier to focus on than several objects. Put the object or place your seat in a spot where yous have a clear view of the object. For materials, you'll demand a cartoon tool (pencil or charcoal is nearly mutual), and paper or a sketchpad. If you're using loose paper, yous may want to tape it to something so information technology doesn't move around while you're drawing. Now you're ready to brainstorm! It may surprise y'all to learn that, when you're cartoon contour lines, you lot want to spend most of your time looking at the object itself, not at your sketchpad. This can exist really hard when you first showtime doing it, but that's the signal! Contour cartoon forces you to really discover and work to replicate the outline of an object. It trains your mitt to follow what your eye sees. Start by spending about half your time looking at the object and half your time looking at your paper, and gradually piece of work your way up to looking at the object ninety% of the time. This will feel strange initially, and your showtime drawings will probably look a little wonky, simply merely keep practicing! As you develop your hand-middle coordination, it'll feel much more natural, and your drawing skills will improve as a result. You also want to make sure that you lot're capturing as much detail of the object's outlines equally possible. If there's a notch or a warp in the object, brand sure your cartoon represents that. Contour art is all most replicating the class of an object every bit closely every bit possible. Many people new to contour art begin past drawing lots of short lines because they aren't used to not looking at their paper, and they don't desire to brand also big of a mistake by drawing a long line that doesn't follow the object'southward lines. Notwithstanding, y'all'll ameliorate your drawing skills more if you draw fewer, longer lines. Drawing longer lines, particularly without looking at your paper, improves your hand-eye coordination and helps you become more confident when drawing. It can be tempting to blitz through profile drawing exercises, especially if you're used to cartoon detailed pieces where the outline is only the first step. Remind yourself to slow down and concentrate on replicating the outline of the object equally perfectly every bit you tin. At the same time, don't freeze upwards while yous're drawing. Especially when y'all first begin contour drawing, you may experience tempted to take breaks to compare your cartoon to the bodily object. Resist this urge! Remember, yous desire to spend very footling time looking at your paper and more fourth dimension looking at the object. Just concentrate on closely observing the object, keep drawing steadily, and break and critique your work once you've finished. There's no "correct" corporeality of time to spend on a contour drawing, and it'll likely depend on what you're drawing. However, well-nigh five to 20 minutes per drawing is boilerplate. Now it's time to put all this new fine art knowledge to the test! In this section are 8 contour line drawing exercises yous tin exercise to improve your drawing and observation skills. If y'all aren't sure where to start with contour line art, beginning with something right in front end of you! Hands are a very common object to practice a contour drawing of, then one time you cease, you tin can look online or in art books for lots of other examples of contour drawings of hands to compare to your own piece. When you're drawing, retrieve to aim to look at your paper just 10% of the fourth dimension. If you're still getting the hang of contour art and are not quite sure how to tackle a real-world object, showtime past replicating some other artist's profile line cartoon. Recall to look more than at the object than at your paper, and focus on replicating the lines as closely as possible. A blind contour drawing means that yous don't look at your paper at all--not fifty-fifty for a single 2nd--from the time y'all begin your cartoon until the time you finish. Cover your canvas or sketchpad if you need to. Expect your drawing to look a niggling funny, especially if it's your outset fourth dimension doing a blind drawing, only this is a great way to improve those hand-eye-coordination skills and learn to really focus on any it is you're drawing. This takes the concept of drawing long lines even further. For this exercise, y'all'll describe the object in one continuous line, never lifting your pencil from the newspaper until the outline is complete. Again, these drawings will look foreign at first, just as you lot practice, you'll improve your drawing skills and your power to recreate the lines you see in real life. Sometimes you lot just need a quick exercise to become your creative juices flowing, and contour art, considering it doesn't get into the details of objects, is slap-up for this. This do involves drawing five contour line pieces in less than five minutes. You can draw 5 different objects, draw the aforementioned object five times, or a combination. Because y'all're but spending a minute on each object, yous'll need to be able to replicate its form rapidly only accurately. Choose something you're very familiar with, such as a favorite childhood toy, the dresser that you've looked at every mean solar day of your life, or even a pet or friend, and brand a profile line drawing of the object. This may be harder than you remember. Because you know the object so well, you may be tempted to add in lots of detail, but remember, contour art focuses on the outer edges of the object. This is a expert way to recall what's important in contour fine art and what y'all don't include. Cross-contour lines are a style to add depth to your contour drawings without adding shading. To add them, you'll depict parallel lines that meet the object, like to those y'all might see on a topographic map. Encounter examples here. Cross-profile lines volition assistance improve your observational skills and learn more about the rules of perspective by requiring you to pay close attention to the outlines of an object and how the lines meet it. The parts of the object that are closer to you volition have cross-contour lines closer together, while the more distant parts of the object will have lines further apart. Once you've gotten the hang of contour line art, endeavor cartoon an object upside downwards! Y'all won't exist able to rely on your memory equally much since the object will be flipped, and then this will practise really force you to pay attention to the object's form every bit you observe it. Contour line definition fine art is a great fashion for whatever artist, whether first or advanced, to hone their drawing and observation skills. Profile line cartoon involves only drawing the outline of an object, without whatsoever shading. When y'all do contour lines in art, you should spend the majority of the fourth dimension looking at the object, not your paper, in order to improve your hand-heart coordination and really get a good sense of what the object looks like. Once yous feel comfortable with the basics, there are many profile line art exercises you tin endeavor out to keep growing your skills! Are yous making an fine art portfolio to use to art schools?Check out our guide to acquire everything your art portfolio must include to stand out from the crowd! Want more drawing exercises? We have a guide with over 100 cartoon ideas to proceed your artistic skills sharp! 
What Is Contour Line Cartoon?
How to Describe Contour Lines in Art
Step i: Cull What Y'all'll Depict and Gather Materials
Step 2: Look at the Object
Step iii: Draw Long, Continuous Lines
Step 4: Go Deadening and Steady
Contour Line Drawing Practice Exercises
#1: Brand a Contour Cartoon of Your Manus
#2: Re-create a Contour Line Drawing by Another Artist
#3: Exercise a Blind Contour Drawing
#4: Draw the Outline of an Object With One Continuous Line
#five: Brand Five Contour Line Drawings in Less Than 1 Minute Each
#6: Describe an Object You lot Know Actually Well
#vii: Use Cantankerous Contouring to Add Dimension
#8: Describe an Object That's Upside Down
Summary: Contour Line Art
What's Next?
Christine graduated from Michigan Country University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the Sabbatum and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.
Source: https://blog.prepscholar.com/contour-line-art
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