Meaning & use
freehand drawing
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Meanings
noununcountable
The activity or skill of making a picture with a pen or pencil by hand, without using tools such as rulers or tracing.
Grammar: Names the activity, so it takes no plural and no article: 'She teaches freehand drawing.'
Patterns
- freehand drawing of someone/something
- do freehand drawing
- a class in freehand drawing
The art course starts with freehand drawing before students touch a computer.
Freehand drawing takes steady hands and a lot of practice.
He is much better at freehand drawing than at painting.
nouncountable
A picture made by hand without measuring aids, rather than with rulers, grids, or tracing.
Grammar: Countable here, so it can be plural: 'two freehand drawings'.
Patterns
- a freehand drawing of someone/something
- make a freehand drawing
On the last page there is a freehand drawing of the old harbor.
The teacher pinned three freehand drawings on the wall.
Her notebook was full of quick freehand drawings of people on the train.
Word forms
| plural | freehand drawings |
|---|
Common combinations
- do freehand drawing
- In the first term we do freehand drawing every morning.
- a freehand drawing of something
- He showed me a freehand drawing of his grandmother's house.
- freehand drawing skills
- Good freehand drawing skills help when you design by hand.
- freehand drawing class
- She signed up for a freehand drawing class at the community center.
- quick freehand drawing
- A quick freehand drawing caught the shape of the mountain.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sketching
- Close in meaning, but sketching often suggests fast, rough pictures, while freehand drawing can also be careful and finished.
- drafting
- Drafting usually means technical drawing with exact measurements, so it is almost the opposite of working freehand.
Opposites
Word family
- freehand adverb
- Without measuring tools: 'She drew the map freehand.'
- freehand adjective
- Done by hand without aids: 'a freehand sketch'.
- draw verb
- To make a picture with a pen or pencil.
- drawing noun
- A picture made with lines, or the activity of making one.
- drawer noun
- A person who draws; also a sliding box in furniture.
Commonly confused: freehand drawing or handwriting? freehand drawing or free hand?
freehand drawing vs handwriting
Handwriting is the way someone writes letters and words by hand; freehand drawing is about making pictures, not writing.
freehand drawing vs free hand
Written as two words, 'free hand' means permission to act as you choose: 'They gave him a free hand.'
Practice
Which sentence uses 'freehand drawing' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option 0 names the activity correctly as an uncountable noun. Option 2 is wrong on meaning, because a ruler and compass are exactly the tools you avoid when working freehand; option 3 uses a plural verb with an uncountable subject.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “freehand drawing”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.