Art Is Easy to Make!

Lesson Two - Drawing
Contour, Gesture, Modeled Drawing, and Getting More Depth

• contour - a linear means of defining form.
• gesture - a linear or tonal means of representing the model's action or pose.
• modeled drawing - a tonal means of indicating the form.
• getting more depth - having the effect of shades and lines create space.

Blind Contour Drawing

As you draw you will only look at your subject, not at your paper. Once you begin your drawing do not look at your drawing and do not lift your pencil off the paper. Let your eye and hand become one. You will draw every tiny contour of your subject.

If you come to an edge of something, keep your pencil on the paper and draw on to the next edge. Just be like an ant crawling along the contour. Go slowly. This is a training session for your hand.

A good subject is a plant - don't get lost in the leaves. Just follow the contour, the edge of the leaf. Perhaps down the leaf onto the pot and onto the table. Tools are always interesting too.

Your completed drawing will probably look like a jumble of lines at first but as you practice this method you will begin drawing accurately.

Remember, practice, practice. As you are sitting at a cafe or waiting for a bus - draw, draw.

Most artists don't look at their paper but have practiced so much that they have trained their eye hand coordination to the extent that their hand goes where their eye does. They have trained their eyes to see and their hands to draw what they see.

Contour drawing is slow. Take a long time to train your eye. There are no mistakes, remember you are just training your hands to draw where your eyes see.

After many blind contour drawings, try a quickly drawn sketch looking at your subject and your paper. It probably will look free and flowing.

Gesture Drawing

If you are lucky enough to have a model (maybe your dog or cat) then have lots of paper and charcoal or something easy you like to use to draw gesture drawings. It's okay to draw everything in stick figure form. You can use a red crayon or big marker on newspaper. Go outside and draw with a stick in the sand. If you don't have a model then use your imagination and have fun. It's the gesture you are after, not the form. What is the gesture of freedom, of sorrow, etc.?

Take a look in the mirror at your own gestures.

Go to the park and draw people moving about. You only need a glimpse of them for you to capture their gesture.

Draw people dancing, riding a bike, walking, running, twirling, bending in different ways, etc.

Modeled Drawing

Use only the side of your chalk, charcoal, conte crayon or pastel. By varying the pressure of your chalk you can make dark areas and light areas. You are going to let what you are drawing come out of the dark and light of your material If you are using rough paper, or smooth paper on top of a rough surface, then you may notice small faces appearing in your drawing. Enhance them, coax them out of the drawing, again using only the side of your chalk.

Notice the light on your subject. Study the value of what you are drawing by squinting your eyes. You will see the dark and light and medium values more easily. Most objects appear lightest in the foreground and darkest on the back edges but the light on your subject can affect the light and dark areas too. Of course, mountains are darkest up front and lightest as you see the ones in the distance. Sometimes it's better not to know this but to discover the values as you draw.

Getting More Depth

I know it's frightening to have a nice drawing and then erase through it, seemingly destroying it, but a good way you can achieve more depth is to draw several layers in one drawing and erasing or wiping with a cloth gives grades and marks you are unable to achieve any other way. You drew it once - so you can draw it again.