Contour drawing of my grandson, Leo, age 10

- Contributed by Dick Myers -





Contour drawing is an exercise technique for teaching art students to learn to draw more accurately. The concept is to focus on observing the subject of the drawing rather than the drawing itself.  It teaches observation.  The artist looks at the subject only and not the drawing.  As a result, the drawing is slightly distorted but often captures the essence of likeness to the subject.  

Karen Bagnard is experimenting with doing contour line drawings on Zoom. Karen is an artist who is suffering from vision impairment and her sight is deteriorating over time. This would be a challenge for any of us, but particularly for someone who is a graphic  artist.

Karen recently made contour drawings of my grandson, Leo, who is 10 years old and quite an artist himself. He makes up comic strips, which he writes and illustrates himself. He also does very creative drawings of dragons.

Getting these drawings done was a fun few minutes on Zoom.  I hope that by having these drawings available, Leo will take an interest in the technique and learn something that he can carry forward with him through his life.  Most of all, it’s fun to do a contour drawing and it usually generates a few good laughs in the process.