Figure drawing Contour drawing Gesture drawing Human Form

Contour Drawing What is contour drawing? Blind Contour drawing is a favourite with drawing teachers to develop hand-eye communication. Contour drawing is essentially outline drawing, and blind contour drawing means drawing the outline of the subject without looking at the paper. The end result doesn't matter - what is important is carefully observing the subject. 'contour’ also includes lines in general, so that from time to time the line will wander across the form and back out again, capturing little details along the way. In this exercise, avoid lifting the pencil from the paper so that the line is as continuous as possible, and most importantly, DON'T PEEK! If need be, work with your sketchbook under the table. If drawing on loose paper, you may need to tape it in place.

Learning to draw accurately depends on many hours of practicing the skill of coordinating your visual skills with your drawing hand, until your eyes and hand work together effortlessly. This fun project enhances your observation skills by encouraging you to very closely examine your subject. In essence, you draw by looking only at your drawing subject, rather than your subject and your pencil and paper.

Your turn Choose a partner or get a mirror and draw a contour face Do this drawing in your sketchbook First do a blind contour, where you are not looking down at the page, just at the image of the persons face Next do a regular contour. (label each, one is blind, the other is regular contour)

Blind Contour What to Do: Now, just draw your hand! Place the pencil near the bottom of the page, then looking at the edge of the wrist, begin to follow the line, going very slowly and steadily. Try to make your pencil follow every slight curve and bump. When you get to a crease, follow it in then back out to the side and carry on. Don't rush. Concentrate on observing every little detail. Review: When you've gone all around the hand, stop and look at the end results. Funny? But look how some areas of your drawing are amazingly accurate. Sure, the large areas might be out of proportion to each other, but you will notice that some parts are far better drawn than when you were looking at the paper!

Blind contour of a hand

Contour Line Drawing

Gesture Drawing A drawing that is done quickly and that its purpose is to capture the essence of subject, rather than to present a realistic rendering of details. Gesture drawing is often thought of as a pedagogical tool--it is hard to imagine an art school that does not have at least one classroom packed with students trying to capture 30-second timed poses--but it also has many practical purposes. The speed and style of gesture drawing allow the artist to effectively capture motion and to sketch out the general character of something in motion, indispensable qualities if you want to draw an animal in your nature journal or if you want to make a quick sketch of a runner.

HOW DO TO GESTURE DRAWING: 1) Choose a subject. In most art curricula, gesture drawing is associated with figure drawing, that is drawing the human figure, usually from model's poses. 2) Observe your subject. The single most important part of gesture drawing, perhaps of any kind of art, is observing your subject carefully. This doesn't mean just glancing at the subject, but really paying attention to nothing else. In gesture drawing, you should keep your eyes on your subject as much as possible. 3) Find the line of the subject. It may be said that every subject has a certain line that defines it's essence at any given point. When you first start drawing observe your subject and think about what it's doing, how it looks, and what the simplest representation of it would be. Imagine that you can draw only one line to capture your subject, and then draw that line. For a human figure, for example, this line may be the axis of the model's body. It would be curved (or not) in such a way as to reflect the person's posture and motion.

4) Draw in contour lines. When drawing the human body, contour lines may be drawn to represent the limbs, torso, and even the head. A stick figure is a body drawn with very simple, single contour lines, and because only single lines are used, it's a two- dimensional representation. Because you are trying to capture the essence of the subject very quickly, you don't have time to draw its individual parts in any real detail. 5) Draw mass. It can be difficult for any artist to represent mass, to show the heft that a subject has. One technique that is sometimes used in gesture drawings is to represent mass by making circular motions. This is similar to using shading, except that it is very quick and inexact. Use this technique to show muscles, a belly, buttocks, or anyplace that has noticeably more mass than the rest of the subject. You can also use lines (similar to shading) instead of circles or in conjunction with them.

6) Keep your hand moving. The entire time you are drawing a gesture drawing, your hand should be in motion. The idea is that you let the image transfer directly from your eyes to your hand without thinking about it. Stop your hand, and you'll suddenly be separated from the action of drawing. You'll start thinking. 7) Set a time limit. When gesture drawing is taught in classes, a model will usually switch poses every 30 seconds to two minutes. This is good practice to push yourself to draw more quickly.

FIGURE DRAWING

What is Figure Drawing? Figure drawing is an exercise in drawing the human body in its various shapes and positions. "Life drawing" is the process of drawing the human figure from observation of a live model. Figure drawing is arguably the most difficult subject an artist commonly encounters, and entire classes are dedicated to the subject. The human figure is one of the most enduring themes in the visual arts, and figure drawing can be applied to: portraiture, cartooning and comic book illustration, sculpture, medical illustration, and other fields that use depictions of the human form. Figure drawing can be done very simply, as in gesture drawing, or in greater detail, using charcoal, pencil or other drawing tools.

PROPORTION

References: rblind.htm rblind.htm drawing drawing