8/27 Friday Class: Gesture and Contour Drawing

Friday's class began its investigations into Line with Gesture Drawings in the morning and Contour Drawings in the afternoon. For a full description of these two modes of drawing see the posts from 8/18 and 8/23.

This Gesture Drawing by Jasmine Gonzales exhibits great attention to the positive as well as negative areas of the composition. Note how the dark values recede setting up the situation for the light values within the objects to advance and establish the foreground.

Matthias Linford's Gesture Drawing also exhibits a good balance between positive and negative areas.  In addition, his use of cross-contour lines moving vertically as well as horizontally create a strong sense of volume around the gourds.

William Verdoni's drawing is an example of the Contour technique.  Note the attention to details and textural elements combined with the accented line.

Theresa Vernon's drawing is also a study in Contour.  Her line style is bold and confident. Note the repetition of the hand plane from various angles and positions.  This aids in moving the viewer's eye around the composition. 
In conclusion, the thing to notice in all the examples above is that Gesture drawings are quick and spontaneous while Contour drawings are slow and deliberate.  Both are equally important in building strong eye-hand coordination.