Contour Shoe Drawing

The artwork depicted above is my contour drawing of a Sperry.

My drawing greatly improved with the addition of the contour drawing skill. For starters, my original premise of drawing largely depended on my ability to recreate stored images, ideas of how I felt an object or idea should look. As a result, I often drew objects how I wanted them to look, or how I felt they should look based on my memory. The contour drawing unit forced me (difficultly so) to draw exactly what I saw, and ignore what I "thought" I saw. In the end, this style of drawing allowed me to create much more realistic-looking artwork, and include details that I would normally overlook. Additionally, the fact that I was unable to lift my pen when drawing encouraged me to draw as I saw, and not simply draw a complete outline and fill in the details. When I drew my shoe contour, I started from the bottom left, working my way to the right and upper ends of the shoe. As such, I drew details involving the laces and patchwork of the shoe as my pen came to that portion of the shoe, instead of simply drawing all of the shoe and all of the laces separately. On another note, my steadiness and fluidity with the pen greatly improved with the unit, and I am now able to produce smoother lines and well-defined edges.

The contour line drawing unit has improved my drawing more than any other unit thus far. I am now able to view an object and draw an accurate representation of it, which is a skill that I have never previously possessed. I am proud of the improvement I have made, and have already applied it in other subjects requiring artwork or sketches. Personally, the unit was very enjoyable, and I value my products for the amount of detail and time I put into them.