Gesture is a translation of the essential characteristics of those shapes you draw. The Kienetic abstraction of a whole form.
It captures rhythm, flow, movement in space.
If you try to draw a gesture with outer edges, you are missing the point of a gesture drawing.
The capability of lines to portray in Lights and darks.
In my previous articles, we discussed two different types of contours:
In this article, we will go ahead with the third major contour type “Cross Contour”.
Cross Contour is similar to the tactile blind contour. But in cross contour, you feel the whole space of the composition with your eyes and translate it a sheet of paper.
Cross contour is a linear problem and the translation should make only limited use of value by defining it simply in the pressure of the stroke.
Occasionally the highest lights will not require a line at all but will break the line and pick it up again when the value becomes dark enough.
As we discussed earlier, there are three major types of contours:
In this article, we will discuss in detail the method of drawing a “Negative/Positive Contour” and its relevance to Architectural Drawing.
A negative shape is defined as the shape of space that surrounds the object or that permeates it.
Negative shapes drawn from any subject matter WILL, WHEN COMPLETED, SUGGEST the positive shape of that which you are drawing.
The purpose of this exercise is to turn your thinking and seeing from the object itself, to that of seeing shapes of space which surround or permeate things.
The process requires that you see space in a new way. Conventional spatial expectations are reoriented.
Draw the negative shapes seen from your point of view, regardless of the separateness and overlapping of the objects.
The simplest and earliest method of drawing was “Delineation”. Its most pure form is the Contour Line.
This is the line demarcating of “What is” and “What is not”. It is a boundary between what is perceived – seen – called. The positive shapes, and the space surrounding the perceived object called the “Negative shape”.
The contour line is a deceptively difficult line to draw well and a well drawn contour line rests upon sensitive and detailed persuasive information.
It is a line which has not only to express the edges of the figure but also suggest what conceals behind it.