Contour Drawing

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Black pen contour drawing of a shoe from three different viewpoints, coloured using effects on Orange Camera app.

This collection of resources is all about the diverse lessons you can create to teach contour drawing for an understanding of line, outline, form, space, and many other visual devices and tools for art-making.

What is contour drawing?
A contour is the line which defines a form or an edge. A contour may describe the outermost edges of a form, as well as dramatic changes of plane within the form. ‘Cross contours’ are drawn to describe imaginary lines that cut across the form and they can give great detail.

‘Blind contour drawing’ is when contour drawing is done without looking at the paper.

‘Continuous line drawing’ is when the artist does not let the drawing implement leave the page – the image is created by following contours in one continuous line.

Another iPad Art Room iMovie introduction to this activity – contour drawing.

A good prezi on contour drawing that includes stepping into cross-contour work and integrating colour to take imagery further.

Here’s some ideas for mixing media, including the iPad, to produce interesting contour drawings, or works that use line drawing as a starting point.

: Black pen sprayed with water mist to create bleed effect

: Contour line drawing of sliced vegetable, shapes repeated and stylised, painted in sections

: Contour line drawing of a still life, created in pen, stylised and patterns added

: Contour drawing created from life using iPad Sketchbook Pro

: Contour drawing created from a life on iPad using Brushes

: Contour drawing with tone added created from life using brushes app on the iPad

: Photograph manipulated in Orange Camera app, imported into MegaPhoto to create contour drawing effect

: Photograph manipulated using PhotoShop to create contour lines and soft tonal effects

: Line drawing used to create digital screen print created using Ukiyoe app

: Thumbprint contour drawing created using words in pen and ink, effects added using BeFunky app

: Line drawing created in neon Motion app, manipulated in TypeIt app and taken further in Percolator

Pierre Emmanuel Godet is a French self-taught artist who creates incredible drawings with a single continuous line. Click the link to see more of his portraits.

Ian Sklarsky and his blind contour drawings…

The Contour Drawings of David Habben start “with a simple free form shape. The llustrator lets his pencil squiggle whichever way it wants to. Once a shape is achieved, he fills it in with a unique character one step at a time. Each spirit evolves to have its own narrative as he slowly fills in the space. Most of his drawings are created using India ink on Arches Aquarelle pigment paper without any sketching.” See the rest of this article and lots more of his work, Shapes of Consciousness, here.