✏️ LINE WEIGHT & CONTOUR
✏️ YOUR SKETCH KIT
This lesson builds on basic pencil control. You will practice line weight, contour drawing, and a simple one-point perspective box. A ruler helps, but a folded paper edge works too.
- ✏️ Graphite pencils: HB for layout lines, B for bold foreground strokes
- 📏 Straightedge: ruler, triangle, or stiff card for perspective guides
- 📄 Sketch paper: plain white paper with room for a horizon line across the page
- 🧽 Eraser: clean up construction lines after your final strokes
- 💡 Flat desk: keep the paper level so your horizon line stays straight
Time: about 10 minutes · Draw lightly first · Thick lines come last
PAGE 1 OF 5, LINE WEIGHT SHOWS DEPTH
THICK VS THIN
PRESS HARDER UP CLOSE
Line weight means how thick or dark a stroke looks on the page. Objects near the viewer can carry bold, heavy lines because they dominate the scene. Faraway edges fade into thin, light lines that almost disappear. You control weight with pencil pressure and how many times you trace the same edge. Same subject drawn with one uniform line width looks flat, like a sticker. Varying weight tells the eye what is in front and what sits deep in the background.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Comic artists often save the darkest line for the outline closest to the camera. Background buildings get a single hairline stroke so the hero pops forward.
WEIGHT!
NEAR
💪 Dark, thick outline on front edges.
✏️ Use a B pencil or extra pressure.
✏️ Use a B pencil or extra pressure.
FAR
🌫️ Light, thin lines on distant shapes.
🔍 H or HB with a gentle touch.
🔍 H or HB with a gentle touch.