Challenge #5

Contour Line Design

For this challenge we will be creating an illustration that focuses on the use of contour lines. We will be looking at artist Shantell Martin, to see how she uses contour lines to create unique pieces of art.

Contour Line

A contour line is a line that defines the edge or form. The contour line is essential because it is the foundation for most drawings and paintings. The contour lines job is to capture the life, action, or expression of the subject.

Shantell Martin

Click on Shantell's picture above to learn about her background and her unique art style.

Click the image above to watch a quick video of Shantell's technique

Click on the image above to explore a 360 degree video about Shantell! Be sure to click on the video while it is playing and move it all around.

Click the image above to read about and see Shantell's 200 foot mural that she created here in Buffalo in 2017.

Steps 1-3

Click on the picture below to view Steps 1-3

Click the Design above to view artist, Shantell Martin's Art Project Challenge on the Albright Knox Art Gallery Website

#1 Random Contour Line that ended up becoming a dog.

#2 Random Contour Line that ended up becoming a guitar.

#3 Random Contour Line that ended up becoming a cat sleeping.

#4 Random Contour Line that ended up becoming a cat stretching; with some shading.

Step 4 - Optional

Now that you have one design from that random contour line, you can begin to build a "larger world" from that design (similar to Shantell's designs).

Shantell likes to use faces in her designs but you could easily substitute "faces" for a different theme. Example #1 ended up being a dogs head, so maybe your larger "world" has different animals that could be pets -or- a larger design that uses only dogs but focuses on the different species.

Example #2 ended up becoming a guitar, so maybe the larger "world" has many different instruments -or- stick with the guitar theme and you end up drawing different varieties of guitars (acoustic and electric) along with any items that go along with a guitar (guitar picks, amplifier, cords, guitar strap).

Example #1

Example #2

Example in Color #3

Example #4

Examples of other types of contour line designs:

You can experiment with different combinations of line contour drawings and other art techniques (examples: cross contour, contour lines embedded into drawings, abstract representative contour lines).