Help with Contour Drawing

[Susan75]

Hello all,

Can I ask for help in this forum or is there another one I need to use?

If so, I'm looking for some help on understanding Contour drawing.

I'm taking a Life Drawing online class and we haven't been given too much instructions on how to contour draw. But the instructer yesterday put out a notice that not many in the class are doing the assignments right.

If anyone could help me understand a contour drawing and how I should do one, I would really, really appreciate it.
I asked the instructor, but he gave me generic answers that didn't explain much.

Thanks so much
Susan

[dbclemons]

The basic idea behind it is to use simplified lines with very little or no variation to define the forms. Mostly made with outlines, and on how lines flow without having to be precise, but without shading. Here's an example by Ellsworth Kelly:
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/424979190/928/ellsworth-kelly-sunflower-ii.html
or as in posters by Lautrec or Mucha.

[rpace]

If the instructor is saying only a few of the whole class are doing exercises correctly, he should probably rethink how he's explaining things.

There's a pretty wide range of contour drawing exercises and dbclemons describes the basic contour drawing well enough. I suggest that you purchase Kimon Nicolaides' The Natural Way to Draw as a supplement to you online classes. If you're already self-motivated enough to follow through with an online class, this book should do very well for you.

~Richard

[Susan75]

Thanks for the help, I'll look into these artists you are suggesting. Thanks for the examples.

I agree the instructor does not explain things very well.

[Elwell]

If the instructor is saying only a few of the whole class are doing exercises correctly, he should probably rethink how he's explaining things.

QFT :nohope: