How to Draw Contours of a Cube
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How to Draw Contours of a Cube
Contours of a Cube are always straight lines. Some directions of contours help to reveal three-dimensional construction of a cube while others will flatten it. That it is why it is important to know how to intersect a cube with virtual planes to draw various contours.
Good contours of a cube can be used as guides for applying pencil strokes of tonal rendering along those directions of contours. Such rendering of a cube will describe the cube's 3D nature the best way.
When it comes to rendering tonal values, you need to remember that the main purpose of shading and hatching is not to "decorate" an object with tonal values, but to use tonal rendering as part of constructive drawing, making a picture to "pop up".
Many beginner artists say that they do not know how to make a picture to appear realistic. Now you know that realism is not about how well you can repeat chiaroscuro you see in life on a piece of paper, but the way you do it. That is why the theory of contours is so important in drawing.
A cube is the simplest three-dimensional object with its height, depth and width. Every object you see or imagine can be inscribed into a cube. If you know to to intersect a cube and get good contours, it will help to do the same for any other object you may think of. It could be a human figure or a portrait, some landscape or architectural artwork - in all cases, using contours will help to draw all objects more believably and get realistic appearance many figurative artists would like to achieve.
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