Doing blind contour drawings is all about developing my ability to see as as a two dimensional artist. Training, exercising and improving my “seeing muscle” are personal goals that I’ve been working on. I think they’re critical to an artist embarking on a self-guided course of art instruction.
I’d like to refer you to Katharine Cartwright’s blog and her 4 November posting. She talks about three important steps. They involve mind, eye, hand. To paraphrase, the mind must know what to look for; the eye must know what to see, the hand must know what to draw. These critical skills are what I’m working on when I do blind contours drawings. Hmmm, this is more important than I thought, now that I think about it!
More about developing these three basic skills tomorrow.
Just a note: I did look at my paper to orient my mind, eyes and pen for the details. When the pen started moving, my eye stayed on the shoes. And, the subject is my husband’s shoes.
10 Responses to “Blind Contour Drawing: Developing Critical Skills”
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Love the sneakers
You are reminding me again… CONTOUR DRAWING! I love learning from you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Hi Kaylene, The shoes were too fun to ignore! Thanks!
Hi Julie, When the time is right…you’ll be there! Thanks!
hello peggy
i should try this
good saturday
Hi Lilas, When it suits your needs, blind contour drawings are definitely good to try. It does take practice!
Hi Peggy, Thanks so much for the reference and for featuring this important exercise. I remember the first time we had to do these when I was an art student in college – it drove me crazy! I wanted to peek so badly, and I must admit that at first I did! Then, I stopped and did it the correct way. It really works, and I’m glad your urging us all to do this.
Hi Kathy, Your posting affirmed what I’ve been telling myself I need to do: work on developing the ability to see.
The same thing happened to me. I had to use discipline and focus on touching the contours with my eyes and pencil. And, trust enough not to peek! I notice the difference.
You have a wonderful blog! Thank you for stopping by.
I love these! Contour drawings are such fun now that I can do them when and how I want. In art school I HATE them…I could not get used to how they looked. To me everything seemed so wrong then, now I see the beauty and the knowledge in the drawings.
Hi Diane, Your comments are “right on!”; I agree totally. Isn’t funny how much fun they can be? Thanks!