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A contour line defines the outline of a form, as well as interior structure, without the use of shading. A fundamental basis of drawing, contour lines are usually the first technique children adopt to draw people, houses, and trees.
What is an example of a contour line?
In cartography, a contour line (often just called a “contour”) joins points of equal elevation (height) above a given level, such as mean sea level. A contour map is a map illustrated with contour lines, for example a topographic map, which thus shows valleys and hills, and the steepness or gentleness of slopes.
What are the 3 types of contour lines?
Contour lines are of three different kinds. They are the Index lines, Intermediate lines and the Supplementary lines.
How do you use contour lines in art?
Blind Contour Line Draw a contour line/outline of the item before continuing the work. Don’t look at your drawing until you are finished with the contour line! You must use the contour line you drew without edits or erasures. Add in any artistic details you wish.
What does a contour line drawing look like?
Put simply, a contour line drawing is an “outline drawing,” that uses no shading. A contour drawing is done when the artist looks intently at the EDGES of an object, but rarely looks at the paper while the pencil moves.
What do you know about contour lines?
A contour line is a line drawn on a topographic map to indicate ground elevation or depression. A contour interval is the vertical distance or difference in elevation between contour lines. Index contours are bold or thicker lines that appear at every fifth contour line.
How do contour lines determine elevation?
You can figure out the elevation of any point by finding the nearest labeled line, counting the number of lines above or below it, multiplying by the contour interval, and adding or subtracting the result from the nearest marked contour line. The more closely spaced the contour lines, the steeper the slope.
What are the methods of contouring?
There are basically 2 methods of contouring – Direct Method and Indirect Method. Direct Method of Contouring : High degree of precision is required for large-scale maps with small contour interval. Indirect Method of Contouring : It is suitable for undulated ground and hilly areas.
What are the 5 Rules of contour lines?
Rule 1 – every point of a contour line has the same elevation. Rule 2 – contour lines separate uphill from downhill. Rule 3 – contour lines do not touch or cross each other except at a cliff. Rule 4 – every 5th contour line is darker in color.
Why do we use contour lines?
Teaching points: Maps are flat unlike some of the ground which they represent so we use contour lines on a map to show how high the ground is. Contour lines show all the places that are the same height above sea level. They also tell us about the slope of the land. On a steep slope, the lines are close together.
What is a major contour line?
Index contours are lines of different colors, styles, or widths that appear at a regular frequency. With simple and logarithmic contour levels, this is called Major Contours. This is the interval for the index contours. To have a red index line every fifth line, set this value to 5.
What artist uses contour lines?
Some famous artists who have used contour drawing include Alexander Calder, Egon Schiele, and many more. All you need is a pencil and some paper! Any size paper will do, but sometimes bigger is easier at first.
What artist used contour lines?
Artists such as Leonardo da Vinci have used contours in their sketches, while Henri Matisse employed the use of dark lines to outline his jubilant figures in The Dance.
What is the difference between an outline and contour line?
As nouns the difference between contour and outline is that contour is an outline, boundary or border, usually of curved shape while outline is a line marking the boundary of an object figure.
What is the difference between gesture and contour drawing?
In drawing, there are essentially 2 ways we use line: as gesture, and as contour. Gesture line is drawn quickly and is used to lay in the structure of a form. Contour line describes edges of shapes and forms. Contours are drawn more carefully.
How do you tell if contour lines are going up or down?
Remember contour numbering reads up hill – in other words the top of the number is uphill and the bottom is downhill. Also remember the closer contour lines are together, the steeper the slope.
What does an elevation contour line represent?
Contour lines are lines drawn on a map connecting points of equal elevation, meaning if you physically followed a contour line, elevation would remain constant. Contour lines show elevation and the shape of the terrain. They’re useful because they illustrate the shape of the land surface — its topography — on the map.
What are the darker contour lines known as?
The darker lines are called index contours. Instead of trying to label every line with a number, which could result in a jumbled and confusing diagram, only certain lines are labeled. The number representing each index contour should increase in equal increments.
What is contouring explain its characteristics?
Contours show distinct characteristic features of the terrain as follows: i) All points on a contour line are of the same elevation. ii) No two contour lines can meet or cross each other except in the rare case of an overhanging vertical cliff or wall. iii) Closely spaced contour lines indicate steep slope.
Are contour lines always circular?
Contour lines always close to form a shape, usually an irregular circle. Note that sometimes contour lines extend beyond the area on a map so you may not see the entire closed circle (Figure 2.16).
What is every 5th contour line called?
To make topographic maps easier to read, every fifth contour line is an index contour. The index contour lines are the only ones labeled. The index contours are a darker or wider line in comparison to the regular contour lines. Elevations are marked on the index contour lines only.
What is the other name of contour lines?
What is another word for contour lines? contours hachures isoheights isohypses isolines.
What is the other name of contour?
Some common synonyms of contour are outline, profile, and silhouette. While all these words mean “the line that bounds and gives form to something,” contour stresses the quality of an outline or a bounding surface as being smooth, jagged, curving, or sharply angled.
What is contour line shading?
Contour line art is a method of drawing where you draw only the outline of an object, without any shading. “Contour” actually means “outline” in French, which is where the name comes from.
