- The 6 main elements of drawing
- 1- Line
- 2- Shape
- 3- Proportion
- 4- Perspective
- 5- Light and shadow
- 6- Structure of the complete drawing
- References
The elements of the drawing are combined to represent a figure. All the elements are in the mind while drawing, but as you practice, they become almost immediate and involuntary.
The necessary elements are line, shape, proportion, perspective, light, and shadow. The combination of all of these allows the end result to be achieved.
These skills build on each other. That is, understanding what a line is leads to understanding shape, leading to understanding proportion, and so on.
When drawing the right hemisphere is used, the artistic part is activated. You look at the world in terms of lines, shapes, and colors, and the relationship between these elements.
The 6 main elements of drawing
1- Line
It is the base element of the drawing. The line separates one area of the drawing plane from another. A simple line segments the piece of paper in two.
The more lines that are added, the more complex and numerous the separations become. A line can be uniform, and all of the same width or of different widths.
2- Shape
The shape begins when the first line is drawn. Shape is the information that is presented between two or more lines, it is an element enclosed by a line.
The shape defines the object that you want to represent. Incorrect use of shape results in a drawing that does not look like what it is supposed to be.
3- Proportion
It is the size of a figure in relation to the size of another. Proportion is what dictates that, in humans, the legs are longer than the arms, the middle finger longer than the index finger, and the nose the same length as the width of the eyes.
If the proportion is wrong, the drawing does not look good.
4- Perspective
It is the illusion that things further away look smaller. To make something appear to be further out of the plane, it is drawn smaller than the object further in front.
Perspective drawing gives a three-dimensional feel to an image. In art, it is a system that represents the way objects get smaller and smaller as they move away from the scene.
Simple or one-point perspective is the simplest method of making objects look three-dimensional.
5- Light and shadow
Light and shadow are used to create depth and atmosphere in a drawing. To make a realistic drawing you need to add a shadow to it because everything in the real world has a shadow.
A drawing without a shadow appears to be flat, two-dimensional, and unrealistic. Adding shadow adds a bit of perspective to the drawing, because it indicates that there is something in front of or behind the object that casts the shadow.
6- Structure of the complete drawing
Before starting to draw the elements of the drawing should be located on the paper. The size of the paper surface is taken into account and the elements of the drawing are located on it.
For example, to draw a human body from head to toe, you would mentally place your head at one end of the paper to make room for the rest of the body to fit.
The shape of the drawing plane determines the composition of the drawing.
References
- Editor (2006) Drawing Basics, modes of thinking. 12/07/2017. Learn to Draw. learntodraw.com
- John Ruskin (2014) Ashmolean: The elements of drawing. 07/12/2017. John Ruskin's Teaching Collection at Oxford. ruskin.ashmolean.org
- Editor (2016) The Design elements of composing drawing. 12/07/2017. Dummies. dummies.com
- L. Menezes (2000) Three dimensional numerical simulation of the deep drawing process. 12/07/2017. Journal of Material Processing Technology.
- M. Kaufmann (2003) Drawing graphs: methods and models. University of Tubingen, Germany.