Most of us do not do enough drawing just for skill development so I suggested that it would be good for my advanced students to look at this very basic element of watercolour painting. Most of us work representationally and it is necessary to get accurate shapes on the paper quickly. Most of my drawing is done using a modified contour method of drawing - I start with one shape that I draw carefully and all the lines and shapes to follow are measured against that first shape. I work back and forth between positive and negative shapes. These contour drawings serve me well as a starting place for my paintings.
This is a pure contour drawing of the bear.
The drawing on the left is a modified contour drawing and I am just starting to draw the "envelop" for a third drawing on the right side of the paper. The straight lines "enveloping" the drawing on the left are to show my students where I was looking to make the envelop lines.
We experimented with the "envelop" method of drawing. A series of straight lines are drawn around the subject and the contours are then refined after the whole "envelop" has been defined.
Another approach to finding the subject is to just start laying down areas of value and allowing the shapes to emerge. I worked back and forth from positive to negative shapes. It took me a long time to figure out the trick to drawing negative spaces ( and the positive ones as well) is to treat them both with equal importance.
I drew this little fellow by working in shapes of value rather than out lines.
Lifting out the lights from a mid toned ground and adding the darks is another way to feel you way into a subject.
For this drawing I put down a light mid tone of graphite then lifted the lights and added darks as necessary.
The next step for this one is to paint a sepia rendering of this scene.
