What is a contour line drawing?

Have you ever seen a coloring book? Then you have seen a CONTOUR LINE DRAWING!

A contour line drawing is basically an OUTLINE of something. It doesn't have many details, and it has NO SHADING.

There are different kinds of contour line drawings.



This one is a "basic" contour line drawing. I would like you to practice this today. It's hard to not shade, isn't it?

Here's a famous contour line drawing by Picasso of one of his friends. This man looks a little odd...can you tell me why? Picasso was a very good artist. Do you think he exaggerated parts of his friend on purpose?



This is a continuous line contour drawing. It's a basic contour line drawing, but the catch is is that you cannot lift you pen off the paper!



This is a blind contour drawing. This is one of my favorites because you never know what you will get! Basically, you look at the object or person but NOT at your paper and pen!

Today I would like you to draw a contour line drawing of yourself. Use a black Sharpie. YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES...work with them. Embrace your mistakes. They add character to your drawing!

What is printmaking?

A print is a copy of something. If I put marker on my finger and then press my paper against the paper, it creates a FINGERPRINT. If I put my hand in paint and press it against paper, it creates a HANDPRINT. Do you see a common word?

There are many ways to make a print.

You can make it with bubblewrap and get a neat texture.

We can only get ONE copy from bubblewrap, so we call it a MONOPRINT. "Mono" means "one". So, 1 print!

There are ways you can get several copies...

You can draw on styrofoam and make many prints.

Sometimes printmakers carve into wood, metal, or linoleum.

Here is a printmaker at work. He is able to get many, many prints from this method.

People have been printmaking for a very long time. Here is a Japanese print.

Of course, we still do printmaking. We make art, posters, invitations, and other paper goods. Here are some cool things I found from now.