Mark Kistler
Page 9
Contour lines wrap around a curved object. They give an object volume and depth and define an
object’s position. Is the object moving away from or toward your eye? Is the object bending up or twisting down? Does the object have wrinkles, cracks, or a specific texture? Contour lines will answer these questions and many more by giving your eye visual clues regarding how to perceive the object as a three-dimensional shape on your paper. In this lesson we will practice controlling the direction of a tube with contour lines.
1. Draw a Drawing Direction
By Ward Makielski
Reference Cube.
2. Using the drawing compass direction NE as a
reference, draw a light guide line in direction NE.
3. Draw a guide dot to position the
4. Draw the vertical foreshortened circle end
foreshortened circle end of the tube.
of the tube.
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5. Using the line you have already drawn in direction NE as reference, draw the thickness of the tube. Draw this line from the very top edge of the vertical foreshortened circle. Notice in my illustration how this line is slanted just a tad bit more than the bottom ê
line, making the tube taper as it recedes away from your eye. This is an application of the drawing law of size to the tube. These lines will eventually merge together at a distant vanishing point, which we will get to later in the book.
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6. Curve the far end of the tube a bit more than the near edge. The law of size not only shrinks things as they move away from your eye; it also distorts images.
Thus, the far edge is more curved than the near edge.
7. Begin drawing the near contour lines on the surface í
of the tube. Notice how these contour lines curve a bit more as they move away from your eye.
8. Complete the contour lines. Continue to curve them more as they move away from your eye.
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9. To create the illusion of a hollow tube, draw the inside contour lines, following the outside far edge of the initial foreshortened circle. Yes, even these internal contour lines need to curve more as they move î
away from your eye.
10. Determine the position of your light source. Using the curve of your interior contour lines, add shading to the inside of the tube.
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LESSON 15: CONTOUR TUBES
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11. Draw the cast shadow with a guide line in
direction SE.
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12. Shade the tube with curving contour
lines. This technique of shading with contour
lines is an excellent way to create texture and three-dimensional shape.
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13. Draw the second tube for this lesson with
a guide line in direction NW. Draw a guide
dot for the vertical foreshortened circle. Draw the vertical foreshortened circle. Draw the
13
thickness of the tube receding away in direc-
tion NE. Draw the contour lines on the
outside of the tube. Voilà! You just defined
tube number two as facing in the opposite
direction of tube number one. Contour lines are very powerful in defining an object’s direction and position on the paper. To shade this second tube, draw your light source top right and shade opposite.
Lesson 15: Bonus Challenge
Try this visual experiment: Get ahold of an empty paper towel cardboard roll. Using a black Sharpie marker, draw a row of dots about an inch apart down one side of the tube, from opening to opening. It will look like a row of rivets or a zipper. Now, carefully draw a line from each dot around the tube back to the same dot. It’s easier to place your pen on the dot and just roll the tube away from you. Repeat this until you have drawn several rings around the tube.
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Hold the tube horizontally in front of your eye at arm’s length. All the rings you have drawn will appear to be vertical lines. Slowly swivel one end toward your eye, just a bit. Notice how the vertical lines now are distorted into contour lines. Experiment with this tube a bit, twisting it back and forth. Now, bend the tube in half and do the same thing . . . interesting, right? See how the contour lines are now climbing across the tube in different directions? Take a look at the long bending tube at the bottom of my sketch page below. Notice how contour lines control the direction of this tube.
LESSON 15: CONTOUR TUBES
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1. Now, I’m going to demonstrate the push-and-pull power of contour lines. For the first image, I want to draw the left leg to make it appear to be moving toward you and the right leg to appear to be moving away. Look at my examples below, and draw this important exercise.
a
b
c
2. We are now going to reverse the contour lines on the second identical image. With just contour lines, we will create the 3-D illusion that the image is moving in the opposite direction. Draw this contour tube in your sketchbook.
a
b
c
Lesson 15: Bonus Challenge 2
I always enjoy the Michelin Man tire commercials. This animated stacked tire-man resembles more of a snowman/soft-serve ice cream creature than tires to me. However, this Michelin Man is an excellent example of contour lines defining shape and direction. Google “Michelin Man” and take a look at this tire fellow. With this image in mind, let’s create our own Contour Kid. We are going to draw two Contour Kids side by side to illustrate the dynamic power of contour lines.
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1. Lightly sketch the head and torsos of two
Contour Kids.
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2. Sketch in the legs, and try to draw these
initial details as identically as possible, just reversing the foreshortened circle “stepping
toward you” leg.
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3. Sketch in identical arms on both Contour
Kids; just reverse the foreshortened circle
from the left arm to the right arm.
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4. Have fun drawing the arms swinging out
and the legs stepping. Draw the curving
contour lines going in opposite directions on
the arms and legs to create totally different
illusions of push and pull in your drawing.
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LESSON 15: CONTOUR TUBES
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You can spend days experimenting with contour lines. Take a look at a few student examples.
Student examples
By Tracy Powers
By Suzanne Kozloski
By Suzanne
Kozloski
By Suzanne Kozloski
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L E S S O N 1 6
THE WAVE
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Afun way to apply the contour lines you just learned about in Lesson 15 is to draw a wave of water in 3-D. As a kid growing up in Southern California, ocean waves were a large part of my life. Whenever I draw this lesson, I’m brought back to my teenage years when I would bodysurf enormous waves and see porpoises swimming in the waves right in front of me. This wave lesson is a good example of seeing and drawing contour lines in the real world.
1. Let’s begin by sketch
ing the Drawing
2. Draw a light guide line in direction NW.
Direction Reference Cube to see clearly
the drawing direction compass angles.
4. Taper the top of the curl of the wave with a light guide line, again in direction NW. The drawing law of size is applied here to make the larger end of the curl look closer.
3. Sketch in a foreshortened circle to begin
shaping in the curl of the wave.
6. Follow the curvature of the curl to create a “flowing”
line. Draw from the guide dot, up the foreshortened circle edge, and down the back side; then shoot off in 5. Draw a guide dot to establish
drawing direction SW. Be sure to use your Drawing the near point of the curl.
Direction Reference Cube!
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7. Okay, now this is going to get very inter-
8. Start drawing the frothy foam
esting. We want to create the illusion of
along the NW guide line.
water curling over the wave lip. Let’s do this
with a guide line in direction NW. Erase your
extra guide lines and the Drawing Direction
Reference Cube.
9. Draw the foam all the way back. Notice how
10. Begin “shaping” the wave with flowing
I expand the frothy foaming mist toward the
contour lines curving down from the top.
back. This is because real “tubing” waves col-
Curve these more and more as they
lapse very quickly, peeling across the front (at recede back into the picture.
least all the waves in Southern California did!).
LESSON 16: THE WAVE
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11. Complete all the curving contour
NOTE: At this point I ask myself, do I con-
lines for this top lip portion.
tinue with all the contour lines, do I sharpen up the area, or do I begin a bit of shading? This is part of the joy of drawing, the creative part of illustrating. The following steps, which we have developed over the last few lessons, do not
have to be strictly followed:
Lightly sketch, shape, and mold the object.
Refine and define.
Shade and shadow.
Sharpen edges and add focused detail.
Clean up and erase extra lines.
12. Let’s define the wave foam by dark-
Sometimes, actually most of the time when
ening in the nooks and crannies behind
I’m not teaching but just drawing a personal
the foam.
sketch, I’ll completely ignore this sequence and just work from inspiration and feeling. This is such an exciting point to reach in your drawing skill. This is the transition from being a student, following steps from your instructor, to
understanding the process so completely that
you confidently and comfortably begin to drift
ahead on your own.
14. Draw several guide lines in direction NW.
These will help you draw the light reflections
13. Continue the drawing with more detail in
shimmering on the face of the wave.
the foot of the wave. Draw more flowing con-
tour lines.
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15. Outline the wave with a dark, defined line. Darken in the shadow under the wave lip. Be sure to blend it down, lighter and lighter toward the reflection.
Complete the illustration by adding action lines. Action lines are fantastically fun to draw and enable your viewers to visually engage in your art. Look at how my action lines are flowing in the direction the wave is moving. Draw these flowing lines on your wave.
Lesson 16: Bonus Challenge
Let’s take the skills we’ve acquired from drawing a wave and apply them to another fun drawing: the whoosh cloud. Practice drawing overlapping foam, dark recess (nook and cranny) shadows, and action lines. Feel free to draw this one with me online at www.markkistler.com; click on “Drawing Lessons.”
LESSON 16: THE WAVE
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Student examples
Take a look at these students’ drawings of the wave lesson. Seeing other students’
work helps build your motivation to draw every day, right?
By Marnie Ross
By Michele Proos
By Marcia Jagger
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L E S S O N 1 7
RIPPLING FLAGS
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T hese next two lessons will be great for learning how to draw flags, scrolls, cur-tains, clothing, furniture coverings, etc. Interior decorators, theater art directors, and fashion designers all must master the skill of drawing flowing fabric.
This lesson is a good practice exercise for applying many of the Nine Fundamental Laws of Drawing. These laws all work together to create the illusion of depth, of visual push and pull in the rippling flag drawing.
Foreshortening: The top edge of the flag is distorted using foreshortened circles.
Overlapping: Parts of the flag fold in front of other parts, using overlapping to create the illusion of near and far.
Size: Parts of the flag are drawn larger than other parts, creating the visual pop-out of depth.
Shading: Parts of the flag are drawn darker on the surfaces facing away from the light source, creating the feel of depth.
Placement: Parts of the flag are placed lower on the surface of the paper than other parts, creating the illusion of near and far.
If you are a scrapbooker, I’m sure you immediately saw the potential of this flag lesson in enhancing your scrapbook pages, yes? If you like this lesson, you are going to love the scroll lesson in the next chapter.
1. Begin with a tall vertical flagpole.
2. Draw three-quarters of a foreshortened circle. Keep the shape squished.
3. Picture three foreshortened cylinders next to each other like I have illustrated below.
Now, draw the top of the flag by following the top edges of these cylinders.
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4. Repeat this several times, extending
the top edge of the flag.
5. Draw all the near thickness lines
first, with vertical lines drawn down
from each edge.
6. Draw each of the back thickness
lines, making sure they disappear
behind the flag. The small disap-
pearing lines define the overlapping
shape of the flag. These are the
most important detail lines when
you draw a flag. Without these
lines, your drawing will visually
collapse, so carefully double-check
that you have not missed any of the
back edges.
7. Draw the bottom edges, curving
toward your eye. Ignore the back
spaces for now. Remember to curve
these even more than you think you
need to.
LESSON 17: RIPPLING FLAGS
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8. Before you draw the back thickness lines, think of the visual logic of this rippling flag. You are creating the illusion that
the flag is folding away from your eye, so the visual logic dictates that the back thickness must be pushed away from your eye. We accomplish this by using placement: Objects in the foreground are drawn lower, whereas objects in the background are drawn higher. When you are learning to draw in 3-D, a very simple rule applies: If it looks wrong, it is wrong. (Now, I’m not saying that Picasso’s distorted faces are drawn “incorrectly,” as Picasso was not intending to paint in 3-D. You are learning to draw in 3-D, so specific laws of creating depth apply.) 9. To complete the rippling flag, add shading and nook and cranny shadows.
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8b
9
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Lesson 17: Bonus Challenge
You have learned everything you need to draw a wonderfully long rippling flag.
Look in your sketchbook, and review the cylinder lessons, the rose lesson, and this lesson. Take a moment, look at the page from my sketchbook below, put it all together, and enjoy drawing the super long flag. You can do this! Notice how I have tapered and curved all of the flag thickness lines inward. This will give your flags a bit more character and bring them to life on the page. See?
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Lesson 17: Bonus Challenge 2
Still not enough flag madness for you? Here are two fun illustrations drawn by two of my students while watching my online video tutorial.
Student examples
By Marnie Ross
By Michele Proos
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L E S S O N 1 8
THE SCROLL
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As you can see by the illustration on the previous page, this is most definitely one of my favorite lessons. I guarantee you are going to love this lesson so much that you are going to start doodling scrolls on just about everything from now on—