Toad Hollow Studio

This is the first in a series of five line drawing lessons. They begin with how to use a viewfinder to draw a simple silhouette and end with expressive line drawing from life. The skills you learn in one lesson help you succeed in the next.

Here are the other lessons in the series:
Line Drawing Part Two – Draw From Life With A Viewfinder
Line Drawing Part Three – Draw From Life Using Sight-Size
Line Drawing Part Four – Enlarge Or Reduce While Drawing From Life
Line Drawing Part Five – Drawing From Life With Expressive Line

This is a simple lesson about how to use a viewfinder. But in trying to explain things thoroughly, I’ve probably written too much, which I tend to do. Ha! So, there’s a slideshow at the bottom of the page with my voice-over talking you through it, if you prefer listening.

Supplies

• I mention an HB pencil and a rectangular vinyl eraser in these lessons. You can substitute whatever you have for those, but you’ll need 9×12 drawing paper to fit the viewfinder.
• Print this viewfinder template on heavy paper or transfer it to cardboard. You’ll need string for the crossed lines too.
• Print this image of a heart.
• If you’re a drawing rookie, here are my supply suggestions.

Make A Viewfinder With Crossed String Markers

Cut out the viewfinder and snip the small lines on the outer edges. Then insert the strings into the snips so they cross in the middle as shown with the red lines.

How Viewfinders Work

When placed on top of a photo or in front of your drawing subject, the inner edges and crossed strings create landmarks that help you draw an outline correctly.

Step One

Use an HB pencil to lightly draw around the outside edge of the viewfinder. Add the crossed lines through the middle.

(The outside edge of this viewfinder is proportional to the inside opening. You’ll learn how to make different sized proportional viewfinders in a later lesson.)

Step Two

The heart silhouette is a bit challenging to draw freehand, but the viewfinder makes it easier.

Center the viewfinder over the heart. Now you can see how it’s divided into four smaller quarters, with lots of reference points to help guide your drawing.

Step Three

With an HB pencil, mark the points on the drawing grid where the heart crosses each line of the string and touches the inner edges of the viewfinder.

You can estimate where the points are, or you can measure with your pencil tip and thumb. You can plot other points by measuring this way too.

For instance, it will help you draw the upper curves of the heart if you mark how far away the upper edges are from the corners, like I’m doing is this illustration.

Step Four

I had to make my drawing dark so you could see it well. Keep yours lighter so you can erase mistakes easily.

As you work, quickly look back and forth between the heart and your drawing. Use the marks to help place the line. If you haven’t drawn very much before, this probably seems like a lot to keep track of. Just go slow and work your way around the heart

Making many “trial” lines with your pencil until the outline looks right is okay. Most drawings are done by making a mark, checking to see if it looks right, and correcting it. And it’s alright to skip around and draw the easiest parts first.

Sometimes, it’s helpful to draw one quarter at a time. Cover all but one quarter, and then you can see that the heart and the shape beside the heart are both just shapes. (So don’t let them scare you.) Technically, the heart is ‘positive’ space, and the empty shape is ‘negative’ space. When we draw them, however,  they are equally important.

Step Five

Use the vinyl eraser to remove the grid lines, and use the point of a corner for the delicate erasing around the heart. That’ll give you a little more control.

If you’ve drawn many extra lines, look at the heart as you erase the extras. It’ll be like you’re erasing everything but the line of the heart, and that’s fine. Knowing how to use your eraser really well is a skill you need to have too. :)

More Practice

Here’s a butterfly and bird silhouette for more practice, but you can draw any image like this. Choose a simple image from an ad in a magazine and try it. Don’t criticize yourself. Just have fun.

Slideshow Review

For some reason, the viewfinder seemed like a whole new thing when I attached strings to it. I thought, “Great Gods Above! What is the wondrous new thing before me!? It is like a window frame, yet also it is like a grid!!” I shall call thee ‘frame-grid!'” That’s what I call it in the review. :)