Contour Line
Drawn outlines that define a form's edges and inner structure without shading, from Egyptian tomb painting to comics.
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A contour line traces where a form turns away from view, describing edges and inner folds with no tonal shading. It is the most economical kind of drawing, and a good one implies volume through changes in weight: heavier where a form presses down, lighter where it lifts into the light.
Outline drawing runs through world art. Egyptian tomb painters fixed figures in clean, confident outlines, and Chinese figure painters named distinct line types, among them the even 'iron-wire' stroke. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres made pencil contours the basis of his portrait drawings in the early 19th century, and Henri Matisse reduced faces and bodies to a few flowing lines in drawings and prints of the 1930s and 40s. The American teacher Kimon Nicolaïdes set out contour exercises, done while watching the model rather than the paper, in The Natural Way to Draw (1941). Comics and animation depend on clear outlines.
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