Weaving Shapes into the background painting tips - watercolor painting

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Talk about shapes it's so important. It will help both your dawing and painting.  Not only we need to see and draw the shapes of our subject, but we must look at the shapes that weave through the subject and the background that indicate the lost and found edges. This helps make a drawing that will become a comlete painting and not one that looks like it has been cut out and pasted on the surface.

CONTOUR DRAWING TIPS

Go fast on the straight and curved lines; slow down on the angles.

Stop often to see where you are and check for shapes, sizes and proportions.

Try not to repeat the same shape twice. This will add more variety to your drawing.

Let the pen or pencil linger at a stopping point, making a distinctive mark that adds character to the line.

Think of the shadow areas as shapes and draw those shapes.

Draw the background shapes and weave them in and out of the subject. If you draw the subject and then come back later to draw the background, you will have two totally isolated thoughts.

If  a boundary is lost in shadow, then leave it out in the drawing to remind you to leave it out when you do the painting.

Connect your subject to at least three of the borders, and try to balance the positive and negative shapes to achieve better design.

Try to keep the backgrounds as simple as possible unless the subject matter demands more involvement.

This is the same drawing as at before except that attempted to weave the figure and the background together in order to achieve a better composition.