Pure Contour

Artist Statement

For this piece we were assigned to draw a pure contour of our shoe from three different angles, top view, side view, and front view. I decided to my favorite pair of shoes which are my Birkenstocks. With this assignment in particular, I tried to get proportions right, because contour drawings don't have much detail. Looking at negative space was also very important when getting the proportions and shapes accurate. Although I love these shoes, they are really simple and don't have much detail besides the buckles, so I think that I should of tried to draw something with a little more detail.

For this drawing I used 2H to sketch then 4B graphite pencils to go over the sketch on bristol board. Something that I liked about using graphite was that you are able to change how dark or light your lines are either by pressure or switching your pencils and for simple drawings like these it helps give the drawing a little depth. Darker lines show the things that are in the foreground, in the front, while ligterlines show things that are in the background, the things farther back. Something that I didn't like about using graphite for this piece was that my pencil was super sharp and without applying much pressure still indented the paper making it a little stressful because no matter how much you try to erase those lines you can't get rid of them.

When creating thes drawings I had my shoe places in front of me for the side and front view, then I moved locations to get a higher vantage point to draw the ariel or top view. Something you have to keep in mind while drawing still lifes is that you can't move around a lot because it will change your prospective. This was something that I found to be quite hard because I can't stay sitting in one position for that long. Like I mentioned before I wish that I picked a different, more complex shoe before, but i'm not too disappointed with how these drawings turned out.