free-handadj.n.adv.

1841 W. Howitt Student-life Germany xiii. 273 The subjects of tuition in the Higher Gewerb, or technical schools, are..experimental physics, free hand-drawing, modelling in wood and metal, [etc.].

1866 Times 4 May 3/5 (advt.) French, German, and drawing (free hand and geometrical) taught.

1873 E. Spon Workshop Receipts 1st Ser. 4/2 Vaguely formed ‘rustic’ or other free-hand letters are in bad taste on such drawings.

1877 Amer. Naturalist 11 204 The preparation of microscopical sections by free-hand cutting, or even with the assistance of the microtomes now in use.

1906 J. A. Flemer Elem. Treat. Phototopogr. Methods i. 6 It is not easy to make free-hand sketches of landscapes geometrically accurate enough to be used iconometrically in place of the landscapes.

1960 Connoisseur's Handbk. Antique Coll. 236/1 There are various ways of producing relief decoration: by freehand modelling, free-incising or piercing or, more frequently, by pressing soft clay in plaster moulds.

1977 J. Esherick in S. Kostof Architect 255 The drawn criticism was of course freehand, usually with a grease pencil or sometimes with a conté crayon.

2006 Papercraft Essentials No. 8. (Quick & Clever Suppl.) 44/1 These pens can also be used for freehand lettering and drawing.

1860 W. R. Tymms Art of Illuminating ii. 53 The use which may be made of this convenient material [sc. tracing paper] by many not sufficiently advanced in design or drawing to be able to invent or even copy correctly by free-hand.

1888 Nature 26 Jan. 294/2 The curve was not done by freehand, but by means of engineers' curves.

1930 V. G. Childe Bronze Age ii. 51 By the use of this device ten or twenty vessels can be modelled..in the time required for building up one by free hand.

2004 G. C. Wertkin & L. Kogan Encycl. Amer. Folk Art 316 Decorated with polychrome floral designs, either by free-hand or using stencils.

1880 Proc. 2nd Ann. Meeting Amer. Soc. Microscopists 1879 47 By drawing it free-hand with a copy to inspect or to remember, the distribution of ink is peculiar.

1890 Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. 5 153 The rest can be drawn free-hand.

1946 D. C. Peattie Road of Naturalist (U.K. ed.) ii. 32 We just looked in the sky, located our star, and pulled the instrument into place, freehand.

1974 J. Gray Canvas Work 12/1 The original and the canvas can be squared-up and the design then painted freehand on the canvas.

1986 Hair Fair Sept. 26/1 The hair was cut freehand.

2006 Afr. Arts (Nexis) 22 June 26 Delicate hatched lines drawn freehand.