Junior High Art – Drawing Unit By R.

Stewart

Working with the Human Form

Contour Drawing
Contour is essentially an outline; usually of something curved
or irregular in its form. Contour drawings are drawings that define a
form through the use of lines only. This type of drawing is one of the
most fundamental modes of drawing used by artists.
Most contour drawing exercises are geared towards learning
how to see. When drawing from real life most people have a tendency
to draw what their mind tells them to draw rather than what truly lays
in front of them. The following example shows how a small child would most likely draw a hand. It is
correct in their mind because they have remembered to include what
they know about a hand…it has five fingers. As a person grows they
learn that the thumb comes out of the side of the hand, the fingers are
made up of three sections, there are wrinkles, nails, and so on.

Eventually, trained
artists become excellent observers and remember to include all the details and subtle nuances of
objects. The main objective of this type of drawing is to improve your observational skills and hand-
eye coordination. At this time there should be little concern as to whether or not the final drawing
looks like the object being drawn.

Blind Contour Drawing: Blind Contour drawing means that you do not look at your paper
while drawing. This type of drawing helps artists concentrate on what they are drawing rather than

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Junior High Art – Drawing Unit By R. Stewart
drawing what they’re mind tells them to draw. It is best to think of yourself as a machine while
attempting to draw blind contours. Imagine that you are a copy machine letting your hand follow your
eyes. As your eyes slowly move around the edges of your object, your hand
and pencil should do the same.
When doing a blind contour drawing one must not look down at their
paper and the progression of the lines should be extremely slow; so slow as be
almost painstaking. This is an important aspect because it will allow the
observer/artist to capture every subtle nuance and detail of the objects
contours within the line. Often times many artists are uncomfortable with this
type of drawing and it may take many attempts before achieving the desired
effect. Practice makes perfect, so it is important to do many of these types of
drawings.
When you are done, you look at your work and you will probably notice that many parts of the
object that you were drawing are either in the wrong spot, are the wrong size, and/or your lines do not
meet up with each other where they should. This is all right, in fact this should be happening.
Remember, for this type of drawing proportion and placement are not as important as a detailed and
expressive contour line. The expressive qualities of a blind contour drawings cannot be achieved
through any other type/method of drawing.

Partial Blind Contour Drawing: This type of drawing is essentially the same as blind
contours except now you will be allowed to peek at your drawing once in a while. The idea here is that
you will begin to focus a little more on proportion and placement. This will give you more control over
your composition. Still attempt to do much of the drawing blind, but start to allow your eyes to flicker
back and forth from the paper to your subject. If the subject has forms within the form (such as the
features of a face within the outline of a head) it is a good idea to look down at your drawing to reset
your pencil before following the contours in that area.

Cross Contour Drawing: In this type of drawing lines no longer define the edges of a form;
rather, they cut across the form. Imagine an insect with paint on its feet crawling over a surface leaving
tracks that move in and out of the crevices of the form.
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Junior High Art – Drawing Unit By R. Stewart

The Face and Head

Any previous drawings of the human face will help set up a foundation for this next
endeavor. Cartoon faces will at least help identify all the necessary components and those who
have tried contour drawing will be more aware of the subtle details found within the face and
head. Both cartooning and contour drawing do not place a lot of importance on proportion.
When most people attempt to draw a realistic human head and face they have the tendency to
draw the eyes too high on the face/head and the noses much too short. In this unit we will be
learning some technical methods used to achieve the correct proportions and placements of the
facial features on the head.

Breaking it up into Halves:

The hardest part of drawing the head and face is figuring out where all
of the features are located on the head. The best way to do this is to divide the
EYE LINE
head into halves. This will give us three reference lines across the egg shape.
Each line identifies the location of a feature. The first is the eye line, which is NOSE LINE
located at the 1/2 way point of the egg. The second is the nose line, which is, LIP LINE
located 1/2 between the eye line and the chin (bottom of egg). Finally the third
reference line is the lip line, which is located 1/2 way between the nose line and
the chin. It is important to remember that this line does not identify the opening
of the mouth but that both lips (the entire mouth) should sit on this line. The
eye and nose line also help us with the placement and size of the ear while the
lip line also indicates the width of the neck (this occurs where the lip line
intersects with the edge of the head).

Adding the Details: At this point it is a good idea to practice drawing

the individual features of the face. Learn to identify the forms within each
feature and the shadows that may occur when light hits each feature. For

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Junior High Art – Drawing Unit By R. Stewart
example, it may help to think of the nose as a combination of an elongated cone with two small
spheres. This type of analogy will help in shading the object.

EYES

When drawing the eye it is important to understand the anatomy of the eye. The eyeball is actually
a sphere that sits within a socket in the skull. Much of the sphere is covered with a thin layer of skin
that makes up the upper and lower lids. Other important details include the lashes and the tear duct.
The tear duct lies within the corner of the eye closest to the nose. There are more lashes on the
upper lid and they are often longer than those on the bottom lid. This attention to detail and
understanding of anatomy will help you draw and shade the rest of the facial features as well.

LIPS EXPRESSIVE EYES

NOSE EARS
S

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Junior High Art – Drawing Unit By R. Stewart

Basic Shapes of the Head and Face:

The basic forms that are often used in the study of art are the cube, cylinder, cone, and sphere. For this
next area of study we will add a new form, the upside down egg. Imagine this new form as a
combination of a sphere and a rounded cone. When we learn to shade the human face we will break
down the face into many forms. In order to figure out the placement and extent of the concave and
convex parts of the face it is necessary to have a basic understanding of the anatomy of the face and
head. This knowledge of what lies beneath the skin will help shade the human face giving it dimension
and realism. The following images show anatomy, animation grids, and the arrangement of forms; the
combination of these should help the artist to correctly reproduce a realistic image of the human head
and face.

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Junior High Art – Drawing Unit By R. Stewart

The Human Body in Proportion

The proportions of the human body, much like the human head and face can be
figured out using a formula. This takes away the guesswork and makes the beginning
part of your drawing much easier. The most common mistakes that artists make when
drawing the human body are the length of the arms and legs. Most people imagine them
to be much shorter than they truly are. As with the human face it is important to
remember that you have the best resources at your fingertips ... look in the mirror or at
the people around you.

The Proportion Scale

To achieve the correct proportions of the human face
and head we must divide the head into halves. There is a similar
formula/scale to follow for achieving the correct proportions
of the human body. Essentially, the rules are as follows: Three
heads can fit across the shoulders, the body is approximately
6-8 heads in length, arms and legs fold almost perfectly in half,
and the center of the body is located just below the belly
button. (See image on Right)

Rough sketching
Why spend a lot of time drawing fantastic arms when they are too short for the body?
Why draw a great detailed head if it is too big for the rest of the body? It is important
to get the layout and proportions of the entire drawing correct before you begin doing
more detail, shading, etc. The best way to do this is through loosely drawn ovals and /or
lines. If using lines be sure to work with stick figures that have shoulders, hips, and
joints. This type of drawing has no detail but it will allow you to view the sizes and
placement of all
the parts (see
below).

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Adding Detail and shading

The rough sketch insures that the proportions (size and
placement comparison) is correct for the body. In order to correctly
shade and detail the rough sketch it is necessary to have at least
some knowledge of human anatomy. The artist must understand
where muscles, bones, fat, and skin make the body bulge and/or
indent. For example, in most cases the upper arms and legs are larger
than the bottom halves and the wrists and ankles are often the
skinniest part. Before completing the body it is a good idea to
practice drawing arms legs and torso’s, much like we practiced
drawing the facial features before putting them into our shaded
faces.

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