ARTminute Ep 05 "Contour Drawing"

I know, I know, 'What the heck is contour drawing?' and 'Why is it so important?'. You can start by watching the video and then continue reading for a more in-depth explanation.

Okay, so, a contour drawing is a drawing that is primarily the outline of the subject that you are drawing. It gets complicated though because you can (and should) include details that are not strictly part of the outline of the subject. As I'm sure you noticed in my example. 

My recommendations for doing contour drawings are these:

• Observe your subject closely so you can include as many details as you can.
• Look at your SUBJECT more than your paper. This is most important part of contour drawing and drawing from observation as a whole because if you are looking at your paper more than you are looking at the thing you're drawing (the subject) what you're doing is drawing from memory, even if what you are drawing is still right in front of you and our ability to retain detailed information from moment to moment if extremely fallible so rely on that subject as much as possible.
• Lastly, by trusting your hands to follow your eyes will improve your hand-eye coordination by leaps and bounds. If you draw enough using this technique you will be able to trust your hands to draw the thing you need them to draw without looking down at the paper so much which, in turn, allows you to keep your eye on the subject to observe more and more details.

TODAYS’S LESSON: Using a continuous line draw your subject in as detailed a way as you can while looking at the subject MORE than your paper and pen.
HOMEWORK: Do 10 contour drawings!

Good luck my loves, and remember to drop me a line if you want to share your work or want some feedback!
​Kristy