Perception of Edges

Chapter 2: Perception of Edges

Within the second chapter of our Sketching Interiors textbook, we learn about contour drawing and the exploration of lines. While to a non-designer, or any other form of artist, contour drawing sounds complex, it’s more simple than the ABC’s. The book defines contour drawing as “following the visible edges of a shape.” Essentially contour drawing is drawing the most evident lines of a shape or object.

Contour Drawing

This technique, known as contour drawing, aids artists in how to perceive the edges of whatever object or shape you are drawing. For reference, the line that goes across an object, as opposed to the edges, is referred to as a cross-contour. The main reason contour drawing is emphasized to improve one’s sketching is because it activates the right side of the brain more so than the left. The right side of your brain is known to be the more creative and artistic side, whereas, the left is your more logical and mathematical side. By using the sense of touch and sight, you are able to effectively communicate a space or object within a contour sketch. As with anything, the more you practice your contour drawing, the quicker you’ll go and the more realistic your pieces with look.

A key part in effectively communicating a contour drawing is having a loose and relaxed hand. This posture allows your hand to move more freely on the page while still adding pressure to a certain area to create a harsh, full line weight. It is best to use a soft lead pencil, traditionally a 4B or 5B pencil, and focus on drawing what you see as opposed to what you know.

Exploring Lines

As referenced above, line weight has a strong hold on making one’s piece of art realistic. The thickness or thinness of a line adds a large amount of variety to a sketch, as well as visual interest, depth, movement, light, etc. This sort of detail is crucial in communicating the reality of the sketch and focuses on detail. The size of a line, or a lines weight, holds enough detail to the point where an artist can draw a bed using contour drawing, and someone can easily tell that it is a bed and whether or not it has blankets or pillows. These tedious, but critical details are what helps to improve a younger artist life and urges their brain to pay attention to detail in a way they haven’t before.

My Sketch: #3

 

In my sketch of an interior space using line weight, I chose to do a corner in the 5th floor lounge up in Lindner Tower. I chose this space because of two reasons: 1) convenience, and 2) it has a good variation of soft and sharp-edged objects and had a good chunk of hatching involved to give some of the 2-D elements a bit of life and form.

I think it was a good start, however, it could definitely be improved. For example, under the first picture frame doesn't necessarily align with the second and third, which is ironic because I based the other two off the first. I also could have added more of the surrounding furniture, but it was a little intimidating to go for those pieces because of the size of them - I didn't want to get the proportions wrong.

Overall, I think the time and effort was there and clear within the detail that was put into the sketch. However, it could obviously use some developing and maybe a little more variation between line weights.