Drawing

INTRO TO THE FOUR DRAWING APPROACHES 

The Masters, such as Michelangelo, used the basic methods of blind contour, gesture, negative space and contour line drawing in preparation for many works. Artists and Designers working today also continue to utilize this these approaches as effective methods of creating finished images and as starting points. 

GESTURE DRAWING

Gesture drawing is a spontaneous representation of the dominant physical and expressive attitudes of an object or space.

BLIND CONTOUR DRAWINGS

Blind contour drawings – line drawings produced without looking at the paper—are done to heighten the understanding of space and form, to develop observation skills and to improve eye-hand coordination.

NEGATIVE SPACE DRAWING

Negative Space drawing is essentially drawing the space around the subject matter rather than the subject itself. This helps the artist to draw what they see rather than what they think they know.

CONTOUR LINE DRAWING

Contour line drawing uses thick and thin lines to describe the three-dimensional qualities – the shape and details - of an object or space. Typically, a light loose gesture drawing is placed and then the contour line drawing is drawn over the gesture, refining it (Drawing: Space, Form, and Expression, Enstice, W. & Peters, M. 2003).