Continuous line sketching, also known as one line drawing, is an obsession of mine. I use this technique to draw people, urban scenes, flowers and still life scenes, and everything in between.

It's an amazing technique to develop observational skills, to learn simplification, but is also a beautiful art form in it's own right.

Using it to create different sketches of your world really does let you sketch your world in a unique and fascinating way that showcases not just your world, but your vision and interpretation of your world.

More than that, I've found developing my style using this technique has led to me enjoying art so much more. I forgive myself mistakes, and I truly love the process of making art, instead of stressing about the results or inaccuracies.

What I'd like to do is show you how to get started and why it's such a great technique through a series of guided sketching lessons.

What are we aiming to learn in this class?

In these lessons we'll go through a whole series of exercises to fill up our sketchbooks where we'll learn:

Basic and meditative contour drawing techniques
How to build detail
Developing our observational skills
Build energy/movement into our drawings
Self-portraits with character
Sketching an urban or architectural scene
A few tips on colour!

Who am I?

My name is Toby, known as 'Toby Urbansketch'.

I'm an ink and watercolour sketcher, specialising in loose sketching techniques - often urban sketching, but really what I love is sketching my world.

And what do I even mean by that?

Well, I get my motivation and inspiration from everyday things around me - the flowers in the garden, my favourite high street, cafe or people. Or even just the mood I'm in when I walk down a street!

Sketching, drawing and painting allows us to express all of this motivation and our personality - and for me there is nothing more fun than continuous or one-line sketching to achieve this.

What is one line or continuous line sketching?

This is a sketching technique that is exactly what it sounds like.

We draw our whole subject or scene all in one line, never taking our pen and pencil off the page until we are finished.

Why use this technique?

There are loads of benefits to sketching and drawing like this.

It's fun and freeing
It is flexible - producing simple and elegant illustrations, or complex and epic scenes as well
It helps develop our observational skills
It makes us simplify and make artistic decisions
It immediately adds character and atmosphere to our sketches
It's not JUST a great exercise but also an art form in itself

It's also very quick if you need it to be, but can also be taken much slower and produce lovely detailed and fascinating sketches.

Mistakes do NOT matter!

Sketching like this means you will make mistakes, you won't measure right, you'll guesstimate 'wrong'. Things will, at the least never be perfect.

But they'll always be unique, full of energy and fun.

Half the challenge in art is learning to forgive and love your mistakes. Enjoying your art and your process - I find one line sketching the best way of developing this mindset and I really hope you do too.

Audio credits:

Apero Hour Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons By Attribution 4.0 License
httpcreativecommons.orglicensesby4.0

Simone Bertleff-Mutter

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