1. Contour Line art The French word contour means, “outline.”
The purpose of contour drawing is to emphasize the mass and volume of the subject rather than the detail. Its objective is to capture the life, action, or expression of the subject . It is widely accepted among schools, art institutions, and colleges as an effective training aid and discipline for beginner artists.

2. There are several types of contour line drawings.
1. A contour drawing has a 3-dimensional quality, indicating the thickness as well as height and width of the forms it describes. Good contour drawings use a variety of line thickness to show what is forward and what is behind. Thick lines bring the form forward and thin lines make them recede.
2. A continuous-line drawing, the artist looks both at the subject and the paper, moving the medium over the paper, and creating a silhouette of the object with out ever lifting the drawing medium off the page as you draw. The whole drawing is a continuous line.
3. A blind contour drawing is an exercise that can be rather difficult. You look at the object you are drawing with out looking at the drawing itself. These rarely look real but can be very expressionistic by show movement and force of line.

4. Contour line drawing with thick and thin lines:

8. Line drawings by Matisse, 1869-1964

11. Line drawings by John Lennon, 1940 - 1980

15. Line drawings by Picasso, 1881 - 1973

19. Contour line lesson unit in sequence…
There will be 3 exercises we will do on copier paper to start. This project will take about 2.5+ weeks
One will be a class practice drawing of a continuous contour line of your hand and a blind continuous drawing of your hand.
Next we will draw an image upside down. Why you may ask? To get you to look only at shape and line and to ignore the content all together. This is an exercise devised by Dr. Betty Edwards. In order to see well you need to break down what you are looking at into simple lines and shapes and not objectivity. Cheating by drawing right side up and not hiding portions as you draw will equate to an F grade on the drawing itself. Cheating this way will not teach you to see.
The last drawing will be a project. This will be done on 9 by 12 inch paper. This will be done with markers. You will need to buy your own. You are to draw a contour line drawing of several hands showing ASL ( American sign language) You have to spell a word of 3 or more letters (school appropriate please)! Fill your page around your words with Zentangle patterns or lines of color.

20. Continuous line drawing of a hand

21. For the hand drawings…
You first need to think about the anatomy of the hand. Where do folds and wrinkles show up? Where and how do the joints of the fingers bend. Lets look at some x-rays and anatomy drawings. And next let us look at the ASL alphabet to see how we can form letters to spell a word.

22. The skeleton

23. A skeletal gesture

24. The anatomy of the hand

25. Contour line art of hands

33. Do not forget, there are lines where the bones meet within the hand.

34. Contour linedrawings:

38. Samples of hand drawings, (Note one only shows one hand with zentangle
Samples of hand drawings, (Note one only shows one hand with zentangle. I am requiring 3 hands.

44. Extra credit drawing samples for this unit: