Glossary
- Baseline
- Your four “before” drawings from Module 0, redrawn monthly to track progress.
- Blind contour
- Drawing an edge while looking only at the subject, never at the paper.
- Continuous line
- A drawing made without lifting the pen from the paper.
- Contour
- An edge where a form turns away from you or overlaps something else. It includes edges inside a shape, not just the outline.
- Gesture
- A fast drawing of a subject’s overall movement or action, made in seconds.
- Ghosting
- Rehearsing a stroke in the air above the paper before drawing it in one go.
- Line weight
- The thickness and darkness of a line. Thicker lines suggest shadow, weight and nearness. Thinner ones suggest light and distance.
- Modified contour
- Contour drawing where you glance at the paper only to place the pen, about 80% of the time looking at the subject.
- Pen and wash
- A waterproof ink drawing with transparent watercolour laid over it.
- Restatement
- Correcting a wrong line by drawing the right one next to it and leaving both.
- Spot blacks
- Small solid black areas in the deepest recesses, such as doorways, eaves and under hedges, that give a sketch punch.
- Symbol drawing
- Drawing what you know something looks like (a lollipop tree, a box house) instead of what you see.
More terms are added as each module is written.