It would be thousands of years before cartographers (map makers) could chart large areas of terrain with any real accuracy. The first known maps to include geographical features were found in Ancient Rome. Essentially, topographic maps represent the three-dimensional landscape of Earth within the two-dimensional space of a map. Topographic maps use a combination of colors, shading and contour lines to represent changes in elevation and terrain shape.
A map with contour lines on it is called a topographic map. Topography is the study of geographical features on a landscape. Beyond backpacking and hiking, countless other professions use them - land surveyors, foresters, engineers, miners, geologists, hunters, to name a few. or lifesaving in a desperate survival situation. This information can be helpful when selecting a hiking route.
If you trace the length of a line with your finger, each point you touch is the same height above sea level. If you were to walk the path of a contour line in real life, you would remain at the same elevation the whole hike, never traveling up or down.Ĭontour lines are critical to understanding the elevation profile of your terrain or a particular land formation. Put simply, contour lines mark points of equal elevation on a map. What are Contour Lines and Topographic Maps? Contour LinesĮver noticed those squiggly lines all over your hiking map? Other than the obvious trails and rivers, these squiggly lines are contour lines. What are Contour Lines and Topographic Maps?.
When you shade you are making the objects 3 dimensional. When we drew with flat lighting it was about placement of the features. Photos don’t show all the little subtleties that are there. This shading experience is what will help you most when you paint. Unfortunately we only have 3 hrs/week, I can’t show you all of them. I like discussing all the little nuances in what we are drawing. Shading: It looked like you all enjoyed developing the form. Well there! That is the core lesson of drawing anything! If you get all that, it was worth your admission. Make the contour line interesting by making it thick, thin, light and dark. When things are lightly placed and you are happy, then find the line, yes the Contour line. You are building or molding an object or scene with fine wire from the “Inside Out!!”. However, starting gesturally you get placements, angles, movement, large shapes, placed quickly and very loosely. In my opinion, Contour techniques slowly and carefully follow the edge of the subject. I want you to be able to recognize the difference. Many instructors will teach drawing the Contour, or the edges of the object. Get all the big pieces and shapes where they belong FIRST!!! If not you will be correcting errors in the drawing, not refining the drawing. This is the same process if you were drawing a lighthouse, a landscape, a bowl of fruit, a bird, or any subject. Only if/when things are where they belong do you start making darker lines on the “Contour” (the outside) of whatever you are drawing. I really mean that, you must back up and look, don’t rush to the next step. After that, STOP, take a breath, stand back and confirm things are in the right places. This initial step will take you about 1 min or so (don’t rush). Draw the inside of the shapes in a scribbly flowing sort of motion, not the edges yet!!!!! I showed you how I place circle symbols for the joints and large muscles. The first stages of a gestural drawing (of faces, figures, landscapes, any subject) is to look for and draw the motion and the rhythm and lightly and loosely indicate the placement of largest shapes. Gestural Drawing: To review a very important point. The more you draw you will develop your own style different than mine. As you get more experience you will instinctively skip over steps, but at this point in most of your experiences, go slow and do every (baby) step in order.
(Quick tip or summary I wrote for a drawing class I taught in 2019.)ĭrawing the Figure: Getting the joints and the major reference points in the right places is critical in the first minute. Gestural drawing (The Figure) first then find the Contour of the subject.