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.
EXAMPLES OF CONTOUR LINES IN ART 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. By drawing implied lines, this gives viewers enough context to understand what has been drawn.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. In the above portrait, Picasso only draws partial lines in the mans jaw line, hand and jacket. Artists create an implied line by only drawing fragments of a line by picking up their pencil and continuing the line later allowing the viewer of the piece of art to create the lines with their own imagination. The above portrait “Stravinsky” by Pablo Picasso, is a good example of the term implied line.
Sometimes lightly drawn broken lines – or even just a slight dash here or there – can be used to increase the strength of the implied line, especially across a longer distance. Implied line works best across short distances. Implied line usually describes a subtle change of plane – for example, across the bridge of the nose or along the jaw in portrait drawing.Ī drawn line would suggest much too sharp an angle (as found along the edge of a box), but we want to suggest to the viewer that there is a change of plane there, so we use implied line. Across the gap in the line is the ‘implied line’, which the mind fills in the gaps. Definition: Implied line is created when the artist lifts the pen or pencil from the paper, continuing its direction of travel, and then applies pressure again and continues in the same direction.