Uplevel Your Art Skills With

Cross-Contour Drawing
Techniques
October 7, 2022

Are you struggling to get your drawings to seem convincing?

Contour drawing changed how I drew for the better and improved my
artwork tremendously. I had no idea that using simple lines could
alter your drawing and make it look much more accurate. It helped
me visualise objects and understand how they related to the space
they occupied, so I had to share it with you.

I have always been fascinated by how a few lines could describe

forms. Simple shapes and lines can bring a story and its characters
alive.

When I was a child, I enjoyed reading comics. These books are often
just designed with varying lines. I spent time trying to copy them.
Back then, I had no idea that I was learning important skills in using
lines to improve the design of my drawings.

The line is one of the most critical elements of art, not excluding
colour, shape, form, texture, value and space.

There would be no art without lines. You can modify a subject's form
with variations in the lines to depict objects realistically.

What is contour drawing in art?

The focus of contour drawing is the outlined shape of the subject

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 rather than the details. Contours are used to depict the mass and
volume using simple lines. The French word contour means "outline".

In this drawing, we can see the contours of the mushroom, but it still
looks flat. We need to add some inner contour lines to help us
understand what we see better.

Not all contours exist along the edges of a subject; it includes

changes of plane within the form.

Once we add the inner contour lines, the drawing makes more sense.

To give these mushrooms more dimensionality, we need to add cross

contours.
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 So, what is cross-contour drawing?

Cross-contour lines are lines that cross the form of your subject, as
the name implies. Cross-contour lines may or may not be visible on
the subject but describe the form. These lines convey three-
dimensional depth, length, width, space, distance and perspective.

Cross contours can be both horizontal and vertical, like the latitudes
and longitudes on a globe.

To help you grasp this idea, take your finger and slowly trace a path
across the surface of an object.

A cup will have a rounded surface along the body. But a book will
have a flat surface.

Another common way to understand contour lines is to see them as

changes in elevation, like on a topographical map.
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 Why are contours and cross-contours important?

These concepts are necessary for drawing and painting to help you
make decisions regarding the direction of your stroke. Regardless of
the media you choose - pen, pencil, brush or digital tablet.

Cross contours don't have to be obvious - they indicate the direction

and the imagination fills in the rest.

While most of us might think that a banana is cylindrical, we might

notice that it actually has flat edges when we draw cross-contour
lines.

A pear will have a rounded surface along the body.

A bell pepper has long grooves along the side and curved bumps.
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 But a book will have a flat surface.

The strokes made with your artistic medium should flow in harmony
with the cross contours of your subject to communicate the form it
takes.

A good understanding of contours and cross contours is necessary

for drawing and painting to help you decide the direction of your
strokes. As an artist, we want to convince the viewer that what they
see occupies space on a plane even though our drawings are on a
flat piece of paper.

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practice and help you beat creative frustration.
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 Here are three things to keep in mind when you use contour
lines.

1. Ask yourself what does this object look like?

A sphere, cylinder, cone, ellipsoid or box?

Let's take a circle and draw straight contour lines. It turns it flat.

What if we drew curved lines? This makes it look like a curved dish.

But when we curve the lines across the form, we can create the
illusion of a sphere with just a few lines. The last drawing looks like a
ball and is much more convincing than the others.

2. Imagine the form as transparent and draw through it

Let's try the same thing with a cylinder.

With straight lines, the cylinder looks flat.

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 Some beginners might then try to create a curve without
understanding its reasoning. This line also looks wrong because it is
too shallow.

We need to imagine the form as transparent and draw through it.

Imagine that your line goes through the surface across to the other
side.

3. Cross-contour lines will be perpendicular to the axis the form

takes

Let's start by looking at what direction the cylinder is pointing.

To draw our cross contours on the cylinder, we need to establish the

centre line or axis. Our cross-contour lines will be perpendicular to
the axis the form takes.

So now, when we attempt the cross-contour lines, we understand

how the cross-contour needs to take shape. We draw it
perpendicular (at 90°) to the axis and it's drawn around to the other
side.
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 When we draw the cross-contours at an angle, it seems off. This is
because visually, you can tell these lines slice the forms; they are not
congruent with the lines above and below them.

Our contour lines guide the eye in depicting how round the sides
look while the top is flat.

Let's grab our sketchbooks and put these cross-contour

concepts into practice.

We're going to draw an onion.

What does this most closely resemble? A sphere, perhaps?

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 Let's draw the outermost contour lines and get their general shape.
Next, we will figure out the angle it takes by imagining an axis
passing through the middle of it.

You will notice the axis of the onion by noting the angle of the roots
and tip of the bulb.

Luckily with the onion, we already have lines running down the sides
to guide us in drawing the vertical axes.

We can imagine the object is transparent and draw it through the

other side. This slices our onion vertically into four quarters.
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 Let's try to slice it in half horizontally down its widest edge. Keep the
cross contours perpendicular to the axis. Then we can add more
lines parallel to it.

Now that we have our lines, we can use them as guides to draw the
other vertical lines.
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 Finish your drawing by adding the roots and the tip of the onion.

Line quality

Line quality or line weight refers to the thickness or thinness of the

line.

Experiment with varied line weights. You can use varying lines and
line thicknesses to create texture, form, and volume and trick the
mind into believing that you see a 3D object.
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 You can use various-sized pens or brushes. Or, you can draw over
certain lines to build up their thickness.

The line may be thicker where the object has more mass. In
comparison, the line may be thinner to indicate a light source.
Objects that make contact with one another create a shadow; they
have thicker lines. You can evoke the transition from dark to light
using varying line thicknesses.

Use a medium thickness for the main lines, a thicker one for
emphasis, and a thinner one to add highlights, small details or
shading lines.

In reality, the world doesn't have outlines like a colouring book. Our
minds perceive things in a way that objects seem to have lines. So, if
you want to create convincing drawings, the type of line you choose
is essential to the success of your representation.

Try these cross-contour drawing examples of still life to understand

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 these concepts better.

By understanding contours and lines, you can easily create the

illusion of form in your artwork.

How will you incorporate these techniques into your artistic practice?
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