Continuous Line.
Tutor Nina Garstang
Nina introduced Continuous Line as a useful exercise or practice. It is a way of loosening up, a kind of warm up exercise. The goal is to not lift the pen from the paper till you are finished. 80% of one’s attention is on the subject and 20% on the paper. It’s a common practice amongst artists and Nina shared that, before she starts a new painting she will do a continuous line drawing first, to warm up, loosen up and tune her eye to the subject.
She did two examples for us of a small still life she had set up. Beginning by regarding the composition for a moment she then began with the largest object, in this case a round vase with flowers. Working on large paper (its free-er) using a sharpie she started drawing the shape of the vase moving on to the flowers, the grapes and background.
For the second drawing Nina introduced filling in, shading and cross hatching. She drew the vase once more and moved onto shading, using marks appropriate for the shape, e.g. for the flower heads she used loose circles.
Finally she shared some examples from famous artists, Picasso, Matisse, Elsworth Kelly, Schiele and Alexander Calder.
Wonderful inspiration
