

It trains your hand to follow what your eye sees.

This can be really difficult when you first start doing it, but that’s the point! Contour drawing forces you to really notice and work to replicate the outline of an object. It may surprise you to learn that, when you’re drawing contour lines, you want to spend most of your time looking at the object itself, not at your sketchpad. If you’re using loose paper, you may want to tape it to something so it doesn’t move around while you’re drawing. For materials, you’ll need a drawing tool (pencil or charcoal is most common), and paper or a sketchpad. Put the object or place your seat in a spot where you have a clear view of the object.

Step 1: Choose What You’ll Draw and Gather Materialsįor your first contour drawing, we recommend choosing just one object to draw, as this will be easier to focus on than several objects. In order to get the most from your contour line drawing practice, follow these four steps when making contour art. The image on the right is NOT because it includes shading. The image on the left is an example of contour line art. It’s an essential skill that every artist should know and practice regularly. Cartoonists often use contour art in their finished pieces, the ancient Greeks used it when decorating vases, and da Vinci frequently made contour line drawings when doing figure studies.
Easy contour flower drawing professional#
Professional artists have used contour art for centuries. If you can’t create strong and accurate outlines of an object, the piece will still look unfinished or slightly “off” even if you add in lots of details and embellishments. Contour line art is also a good way to become more skilled at replicating the outline of an object and developing hand-eye coordination (which we’ll explain more about in the next section). Many artists will begin a project with a contour line drawing to get a quick sense of the piece’s composition, then they’ll later go back and add more details. Contour line art has many uses, even for highly-experienced artists. However, just because contour line art is easy to start doesn’t mean it’s only meant for beginner artists or those who don’t have the skills to do more detailed drawings. Children, as well as people without a lot of experience drawing, typically make contour line drawings without realizing it, simply because this method is one of the easiest and quickest ways to begin drawing. Some contour drawings will include outlines of important interior shapes (such as wrinkles in cloth or objects on a bookshelf), but contour drawings will never contain shading or minute details.īecause you’re focusing on just the shape of an object and not any minor details, contour line art is a great drawing method for beginning artists as well as those looking for some quick drawing exercises. For example, if you wanted to do a contour line drawing of a pear, you’d simply draw the outline of the pear, add a stem, and stop there. “Contour” actually means “outline” in French, which is where the name comes from. We also suggest different contour drawing exercises so you can keep improving your skills.Ĭontour line art is a method of drawing where you draw only the outline of an object, without any shading. In this guide, we explain what contour lines in art are and how you make contour line art. Have you heard about contour line art but aren’t sure what it is? The good news is that you’ve likely already made dozens, maybe even hundreds, of contour line drawings throughout your life without realizing it! Contour drawing is one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your hand-eye coordination and drawing skills.
