An outline in the drawing is the line surrounding a picture highlighting the edges without any shade or texture, giving an idea of the shape or form of the visual a person is viewing. You can do this drawing with a pencil, pen, or any other suitable tool. The process of creating an outline is called contouring.

Learning how to outline a drawing is the first step in drawing that helps you plan your picture, focusing on how thick or thin your lines should be, and what the drawing will look like. Use a sharp pencil and smooth paper, and make sure your drawing area is bright, to help you outline better.

Draw a fine, light line to outline the main features of your subject. Then build on this layer afterwards with layers of shading. To improve the accuracy of your drawing, you could create a sketch on another piece of paper first, then transfer it with tracing paper or with the grid method.

The basic outline shapes are square, rectangle, circle, triangle, star, and all polygonal shapes (hexagon, octagon, etc..). After these shapes that contain the minimum lines to create an outline, there are infinitely more complex outlines with more and more lines.