Lauren Reading; Gesture and Blind Contour
November 18, 2016 § Leave a comment
I haven’t posted for some time now and so I thought I’d throw in a drawing of my daughter, Lauren using a quick gestural and sometimes blind contour.
Stages in a Mixed Media Drawing
February 15, 2016 § Leave a comment
I recently have been working with mixed media works using colored pencil and watercolor. This first piece of a pileated woodpecker is the contour which provides the framework for my drawing. I can’t stress enough how important this stage is in revealing your personality as an artist, demonstrating form in the subject, and laying out your composition. I draw quite blind and by that I mean I keep my eye on the subject and let my hand become a tool of the eye. Prismacolor is one brand of colored pencil I use often.
Using Contour as the Framework
January 24, 2016 § Leave a comment
I will be recommending books that I believe will help you along your journey of self discovery through drawing and will start with my book the Little Book of Drawing; a Friendly Approach. This book is unlike others in that it highlights the contour line as the framework for your personality and emotion, composition, and reveals form and depth. My drawing of Lauren illustrates the importance of the contour. Notice that my contour is unique with its curvilinear quality and quirkiness. Yours will be much different. By allowing your hand and pencil to become an extension of your eye, you lose your inhibitions and connect with the subject. This gradated pencil drawing allows that line or contour to show through.
Contour of Joe and Frankie
October 7, 2015 § 2 Comments
This is the contour for a drawing of our grandson Joe and his Boston Terrier Frankie. This is the stage where I get in all of the crucial information and provides the framework for the finished gradations. Taken into account is the light source, area of focus, and a true sense of form or what is three dimensional about my subject.
Pairing the Contour with the Finished Gradation
June 11, 2015 § Leave a comment
In understanding the power of the contour to provide the framework for your finished work, it always helps to pair both. In seeing the lights and darks of the line drawing to inform you of the light source, point of focus, the layout of the composition and reveal your personality alongside the gradation based on that contour, it helps to clarify things. Here is the side view of Persephone in contour and gradation.
The Importance of Contour Drawing
June 3, 2015 § Leave a comment
Here are a pair of contours or line drawings of the sculpture of Persephone. Contour drawing lies at the heart of my teaching of drawing. It allows you as the artist to envision your composition; thinking all the way out to the edges. It provides the sense of a light source giving your subjects form or a three dimensional nature, But most importantly, by drawing blind and not keeping one’s head buried in the paper and instead on the subject, it reveals your personality. The hand becomes a tool of the eye and the contour becomes truly unique to you!!
The Power of Telling our Stories
April 28, 2015 § 2 Comments
I am showing you a contour of a still life consisting of garlic. This tool does much of the work for you, It is revealing of form by demonstrating the light source, laying out your composition, and letting your personality pour out onto the page. This contour is part of a two drawing series that merely looks at a changing light source. Here are the gradations that were based on informative contour. We can begin to say more about our subject material when we examine ways to say something different about it. Here, we keep the placement of the still life the same and change the light source.
Garlic Still Life
April 8, 2015 § 2 Comments
I’m showing the informative nature of the contour as it provides the framework for the finished gradation of garlic and cloves. 
Notice how the contour allows you to reveal your thought process of compositional considerations, the light source, area of emphasis. Once you have determined those elements, you are free to keep your eye on the subject and allow your personality to flow out onto the page. At this point, I keep my eye on the subject, let my hand become an extension of the eye, and rarely look at the surface of the paper. The contour line moves from light to dark describing the three dimensional nature of the subject, the light source, and the storyline you have set forth. Notice how my contour is curvilinear in nature. Yours will be very different. You can find examples such as these in my book The Little Book of Drawing; a Friendly Approach. My teaching style is encouraging in nature and allows you to try different media, techniques, and to find your own personal style of story telling through drawing. 
Fall Still Life
November 23, 2014 § Leave a comment
Here is a contour and finished gradation in stippling of a Fall still life. The contour provides me with the framework for the gradation. I even included the small letter s’s to indicate where the shadows lay. These notations whether on the page or in a notebook help you as the artist remember key elements. The contour exists on it’s own in places as it leads you in and out of the composition.
Anna and Clare at Play
November 5, 2014 § Leave a comment
At last, the final drawing of a three part series of Anna and Clare in a tunnel at the playground. The first shows them contemplating things, the second; beginning to move, and now, they are in full motion. Whee!! Again, I’m showing the contour or line drawing with the finished gradation. Serial imagery allows you to take full advantage of a train of thought.
Dr. Mary McNaughton and Drawing 