Chapter 3 | DECORATIVE RIBBONS
Drawing a decorative ribbon is drawn in about the same way as a waving flag. In art history, such a decorative ribbon usually contains a name or saying. Painters liked to make them squirm to make them look flowy and also to show off how well they could draw.
Exercise 1: copy one or more of the following decorative ribbons. The top ribbon still looks very flat and stiff, but towards the bottom they become more and more flowy. Follow steps 1 to 3 for each ribbon.
Step 1: First draw the continuous winding ‘S-line’. Sometimes that S-line is at the top, sometimes at the bottom.
Step 2: Draw the vertical lines exactly where the sway line changes direction and where the ribbon ends on the left and right. Make sure the ribbon stays the same width everywhere.
Step 3: Finish the ribbon. Make the bends nice and round, so no sharp corners.
Exercise 2: Draw the following mirrored ribbons. Start again with the S-line, which runs from top to bottom here (or from bottom to top if you like). Make sure that the sides are straight, otherwise the ribbon will appear convex.
Sometimes a decorative ribbon is part of an emblem/brand, such as that of the famous English football club Liverpool. The decorative ribbon reads EST.1892. EST is the abbreviation of ‘established’ and means that the club was founded in 1892.
Exercise 3: Design your own emblem with a decorative ribbon for something or someone that is important to you, for example a name, person, animal or club.
EXTRA: The last exercise in this chapter is for hard-core drawing puzzlers. The next two ribbons twist around each other and note: the S-line is not continuous! In this case it is useful to first draw two vertical assisting lines so that the width remains the same everywhere. The right example is painted on brown cardboard.
