CONTOUR DRAWING
Contour drawing is one approach to drawing from observation.
Its primary purpose is to develop visual acuity and sensitivity
to qualities of surface and form. The process of contour
drawing suppresses the symbolic abstraction we normally use
to represent things. Instead, it compels us to pay close
attention, look carefully, and experience a subject with both
our visual and tactile senses.
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• Contour drawingis best done with either a soft, well·
sharpened pencil or afine-tipped pen that is capable of
producinga single incisive line. This fosters afeeling of
precision that corresponds to the acuity of vision that
contour drawing requires.
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• Imagine the pencil or pen is in actual contact with the
subject as you draw.
• As the eye carefully traces the contours of a subject, the
hand moves the drawing instrument at the same slow and
deliberat epace, and responds to every indentation and
undulation ofform.
• Avoid the tempt ationto move the hand faster thant he eye
can see; examine the shape of each contour you see inthe
subject without considering or worrying about its identity.
··-·-... ·-·~ The most noticeable contours are those that circumscribe
an object and define t heouter boundary between t hefigure
and its background.
----- --· Some contours travel inward at foldsor breaks inaplane.
____ ----···......... ·• Others are formed by overlapping or projecting parts.
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__ ...·• Still other contours describe the shapes of spaces and
~---shadows within the form.
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188/ ARCHITECTURAL GRAPH ICS
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