For Thursday, you are to make a contour line drawing of a subject you would characterize as "intensely complicated." Examples: a patch of grass, tree bark, a close of view of leaves on trees, a wall of bookshelves, wood grain....Your drawing must come from life--and not from a photograph.
Remember, a contour line drawing is a drawing comprised of a LINE--NO value, no shading, no stippling, no shadowing, etc.
Materials: Ball point pen or felt-tipped marker, 18"x24" white drawing paper
Follow these guidelines when drawing:
1. Use a singular, non-hairy, confident, SLOW line.
2. PAINFULLY SLOW (so slow you can't believe how slow you are drawing): I am asking you to draw slowly because this is a drawing about looking, and you can only really look if you slow yourself down and force yourself to look at everything, however minute or seemingly unimportant.
3. Connected to #2 is that I want you to have NO hierarchy of imagery; for example, if you were to draw a wall, or a floor, the smudges on the wall or floor are just as important as say, a painting hanging on the wall, or a chair sitting on the floor. If you were drawing a face, the freckles, moles or blemishes are just as important as the features. Draw EVERYTHING, even things you don't typically characterize as valuable, or worthwhile.
4. Fill the entire page--top to bottom, corner to corner, edge to edge.
5. Record as much detail as possible. Be obsessive with your RECORDING of information. It might be helpful to imagine that you are recording something incredibly important for someone who will never actually see your subject matter; instead they must rely on how well you record what you see.
6. No erasing.
7. Use a ball-point pen or a felt-tipped marker. If you make a "mistake," leave it and move on.
8. This is not a drawing about proportion. This is a drawing about looking and recording--about pushing yourself to SEE more than you do initially. ASSUME you are missing information, and push yourself to always record more.
9. Don't think too much--LOOK, LOOK, LOOK!!
the clubhouse
2 years ago
I thought the contour line HW was actually pretty cool, though it did take me longer then usual to get a feel for the objects i was drawing. Unlike charcoal you can't smear or smudge to create different values in the picture, the lack of value is what I felt produced the biggest challenge with this assignment. Overall I still enjoyed working with pen.
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