Contour Drawing

Contour Drawing Examples

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Contour Drawing Exercises

This is possibly the most important training you need to do. It is a magical exercise that if done properly, will transport you without you knowing, into the subconscious creative state that is so nourishing to one's soul.

Using a sharper pencil, preferably 3B or 4B and the paper before you, have the model strike a pose they can hold for 10 minutes or so. Sleeping family members, pets, your left hand or your foot, or even household items are all good substitutes.

Remember that once you start, you will not look at your drawing at all. This is really a "blind contour drawing".

Look at the model and imagine your pencil is your finger and that you are running your finger over the outer edge of the part of the model you are drawing. Note that in places, the surface you are tracing with your finger/pencil recedes away and another starts near it. Where the surface moves away from you, press firmer with your pencil, as if to follow the edge away. Where it comes towards you, press more lightly. The main objective is to follow the contour. Forget about proportions and accuracy. Just trace the contour while constantly imagining your finger moving slowly along it.

At first this is difficult. The concentration is intense but as promised, it will transport you.

Again, you're not trying to make pretty pictures. These are exercises. Until you have done many dozens over a period of time, you cannot begin to realize that these are the key to better drawing and painting.

As a side exercise, do a tracing of a master drawing. Just the main lines not the shading. Turn it upside down and do a contour drawing – a copy of the upside down drawing. You will be surprised at the accuracy of your exercise. It will reveal to you just how much we draw, not what we see, but what we think we see.

Blind Contour Drawing Exercises

Cross Contour Drawing Exercises

Gestural Drawing

Gestural Drawing Examples

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How To Practice Gestural Drawing

Have your friend, partner, child or other unfortunate passer-by; strike a dynamic pose (with twist or stretch).

Get your pencil or stick of graphite (pref. 3B-8B i.e. something slippery and dark) and your stack of A3 sized paper. Stand up and ensure your arm, elbow, wrist and hand can all move freely above the paper.

Before you start, LOOK. Then FEEL the pose within yourself, as if you were also holding the same pose. Feel the stretch and the motion.

Think of nothing to do with pretty drawing. Just sense the movement in the form.

When you start to draw, using a continuous smooth line, draw the energy of the pose. Do not stop and start. Do not look at your drawing. Keep moving the pencil in the direction of the main lines of energy. Feel the motion and feel the energy in your body, arm, hand and pencil, laying down the mark in the same way.

Do not draw the contours or edges. Do not try to make a detailed drawing. Within a few seconds, 15- 30 you should have done a scribble that looks like the motion of the pose.

This is also known as a scribble drawing.

The benefits of gestural drawing exercises are the freeing up of your mind and your body. This exercise helps to remove any performance anxiety.

Without a glance, throw your drawing to one side and start another one of a different, dynamic pose.

Once your family start to avoid you, look for the motion and energy in even inanimate things; A coat thrown over a chair; Sports newspaper photos or even images from popular magazines.

Basic Drawing Exercises

keys for all creativity

Everyone has thousands of bad drawings in them. The sooner they get them out, the sooner they can do the good drawings!

Get some A3 sized paper, either bond or preferably cartridge, but even butcher's paper or newsprint is fine. Make sure you aren't worried about wasting it. Leave the really precious paper for later.

Every drawing you have admired, is the result of countless hours of practice (except those done by children and animals).

You have to train yourself through practice also.

If you're not prepared to practice, then cheat. Buy yourself a projector or digital camera and do what David Hockney believes many of history's masters have done with a camera obscura. Trace.

It's much less rewarding but might give you some good results.

If you want to play and practice – to develop eye-brain-muscle coordination and muscle memory, just as athletes or martial artists do, then welcome to a world of joy, and sometimes of pain.

The following exercises are fundamental to all good visual creativity. They not only enable you to draw better but they hold the keys which unlock your creativity; and a great source of wellbeing. We cannot stress the value of these exercises enough. They are:

gestural drawing
contour drawing
weight or mass drawing
modelled drawing

These were first comprehensively described by Kimon Nicolaides in the 1920's in the USA. His book "The Natural Way to Draw" is very worthwhile, despite being a little heavy going as regards the exercises. If you are persistent enough to follow his programme you will draw like a fiend in only months! The books by Kaupelis and by Betty Edwards (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain) also base their exercises on these principles. Most worthwhile drawing programmes use some form or variation of these.

General Drawing & Painting Advice

So how to draw and paint?

The following suggestions are aimed to help you easily overcome some initial difficulties and to maintain your interest. These are summarized as follows. (Many of these issues will also be dealt with in Manny's art blog).

Some philosophical issues:

"Just do it": a favourite saying of active people, and a stroke of genius by the Nike company. It encompasses the idea that life is short. There's no time like the present.
At first, have no expectations other than to have a pleasant time playing. If you' worrying about how to make this new pastime produce valuable works, or how to earn a living from it, you' torturing yourself
Get as many instructional books and videos as you can, but do not be ruled by any single author's or teacher's ideals. Understand that no advice can entirely replace your own efforts and practice.
Celebrate your failures and mistakes because they are evidence of your practice and training. Keep some of them to reflect back upon, at a later time in your journey. Nobody makes masterpieces right from the start. Most masterpieces we see are the result of a lifetime of effort.
Despite all the information you can gather from others, it is the lessons you learn by pushing yourself in your practice that will be the most valuable, and most unique to your work.
Don't worry about finding a "style". Work at it long and hard enough and you won't be able to get away from your style finding you.
If you' not enjoying it… you' doing something wrong. Go back to playing.
Be wary of elite artists pulling up the ladder behind them, discouraging you by insisting that nothing but the most expensive gear is worth using; that only such and such a paint or paper or canvas is considered good enough etc.

Some practical advice:

Start with the most basic and affordable materials. We recommend everyone practice drawing since it is the foundation of all art practice. It is also the most immediate and direct form of creative self expression. It is highly meditative. It is immediate and gratifying.
Acquire copies of works that you like, and surround yourself with them. Study them and ask yourself what it is that you like about them
Try to see an experienced artist working in the medium you prefer. Watching the way they handle the materials might save you countless hours of experimentation. (e.g. attend Art Shed's free in-store demonstrations)
Attend seminars and summer schools and join groups with similar interests. They can all provide very useful information. (see our links)

How to Draw and Paint

A child asked her father "what do you do at work every day, Daddy?” Her art teacher father replied… “I teach grown-ups to draw, darling."
Astonished, she asked "You mean they forget?"

Picasso said that he could paint like a master at 20 and that he then spent the rest of his life trying to learn how to paint like a child.

In the above two anecdotes, lies the secret to “how to draw and paint”.

Every person, and even some animals can paint and draw. What you're possibly asking is "how to draw and paint well?"

That, of course depends on your definition of what is good art.

Your definition… implies your expectations or aspirations or ideals. These are influenced by many factors, not least of which are the myriad images that flash across our eyes daily, including those of works by masters.

Herein lies the problem.

Unlike children, many people are afraid to play with materials which leave a permanent mark on a surface.

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