Lesson 12 · 4/4

Contour and Cross-Contour Lines

Use contour lines to describe the surface and volume of a form.

10 min Beginner

A contour is a line that follows an edge. But not all contours are equal: some describe the outside silhouette, some describe edges inside the form, and some wrap around the surface to show its volume. Mastering them lets you suggest 3D form with lines alone.

Outer and inner contours

Outer contour (silhouette): the outline that separates the object from the background.
Inner contours: edges and folds inside the silhouette: the edge of a sleeve, the rim of a cup, the eyelid.

Inner contours are what make a drawing feel dimensional. A silhouette alone is flat.

Cross-contours: wrapping the form

Cross-contour lines wrap around a form like rubber bands, rings on a tube or lines of latitude on a globe. They show the direction and curvature of a surface.

Cross-contours on a sphere, a bent tube and a pillow. They make volume readable even without shading.

How to draw them:

Imagine slicing the form with parallel planes. Each slice leaves a line on the surface.
On cylinders and tubes, cross-contours are ellipses (or parts of ellipses) that follow the axis.
Where the surface turns away from you, the lines curve more sharply and get closer together.

Overlaps

Where one contour passes behind another, stop the line at the overlap. These small "T" junctions are powerful depth cues: the line that continues is in front. Clear overlaps make even simple drawings feel spatial.

A classic exercise to train your eye: draw the contour of an object without looking at the paper, only at the object, moving your pencil as slowly as your eye travels along the edge. The results look strange, but the exercise builds a strong connection between seeing and drawing.

Modified contour: same idea, but you can glance at the paper occasionally to reposition.

Exercise 1

Blind contour

Draw your non-drawing hand in blind contour, for 5 minutes, without looking at the paper. Do it three times. Then make one modified contour drawing.

Exercise 2

Cross-contour forms

Draw a sphere, a cylinder, a bent tube, a banana and a pillow. Cover each with cross-contour lines that describe their surfaces. No shading.

Exercise 3

Cross-contour object

Choose a curvy object (a shoe, a pepper, a stuffed animal). Draw it using only cross-contour lines, as if it were a wireframe model.

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