Figure Drawing: Line and Contour

By Helen South, About.com Guide

Confidence is critical in figure drawing. You can get away with murder so long as your line is sure. Here, I've used a combination of strong contour and simple areas of tone to create an informal drawing, with residual line and tone from a major alteration of position creating a nod towards Cubist abstraction. While large shifts can be effective, obsessive fiddling isn't - a clean line says 'I want this to go here' while an re-worked line says 'I'm not sure about this shape'.

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• Figure Drawing: Line and Contour
• Gestural Structure
• Short-pose contour drawing
• Continuous line
• Exploratory Line
• Contour drawing with selective tone
• Expressive line

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