What Is a Contour Line in Art?
The contour line exercise is one of the first exercises an art student performs. The contour line drawing exercise encourages the development of visual accuracy.
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Define
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According to MMWindowtoArt.com, a contour line is an outline. It represents the exterior edges of an object and is a clean, connected line with no shading.
Importance
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Learning to see the outline of something and being able to draw the lines exactly as they are is one of the first steps to becoming a skilled artist. Many beginning artists draw a representation of what they see instead of what they actually see.
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The Goal
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According to MMWindowtoArt.com, the goal of the contour drawing is visual training. A good thought for artists to keep in the back of their while drawing is, "What do I see? What shape are the outlines of this object?"
Objects to Draw
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Plants in pots, a bowl of fruit, hands, or the human figure create interesting visual options. The idea is to select something that has an interesting outline.
How to Do It
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Select one of the objects to be drawn as the focal point. The pencil should not be taken from the paper once the exercise commences. The eyes should move back and forth between the paper and the object. The hand should draw what the eyes see. At the end of each session, the basic outline of the object should emerge on the paper.
Tips
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Artist Nancy Doyle recommends that artists doing contour drawings really take their time with each drawing. This allows artists to get a "feel" for the object to be drawn.
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