Why is blind contour drawing important

One of the crucial skills you will build with continuous contour drawing is forward thinking. Where do I move next so that I can be in a good position for the next line and the next and the next? Is it the right time to complete this line, or should I go elsewhere and come back to it?

There is so much value in being able to understand the entire plan for how your drawing is going to come together. Continuous line drawing will force you to think about how every line comes together and works together. This continuous technique will also force you to be really careful about making mistakes. Mistakes are great and every artist should learn to love them.

Mistakes are how we learn. How are you going to move your pencil from where it is now to where it needs to go? You may be wondering what the benefit of problem solving within the context of continuous contour drawing is useful to being with. How often will you really be drawing with only one line? Thinking your way out of a problem will help your brain think about your art in a new and different way. It will get you out of your regular patterns and routines, which is always a great thing.

Out of all of the contour drawing forms, cross contour drawing is one of my favorites to look at. Not only is it a great exercise, it can also be amazing as finished art. There are no other lines in a cross contour, not even and outside outline. Pretty neat, right?

Cross contour drawing is a great test in observing shapes in a very precise way. I know that apple is round, but how round is it? I know that the mug dips in the center, but how much does it dip? If you interpret these angles incorrectly, you could end up with an oblong apple or a very shallow mug.

All contour drawing is a workout for your observational skills. Contour drawing teaches you that a shape is more than just an outline.

Instead, there is a lot of depth within it that is made from twists and turns. Trying to tackle too many details in a contour drawing can be really frustrating and defeat the purpose of a basic contour drawing to begin with.

Of course, there are some beautiful contour drawings. For the most part though, contour drawings are great practice and not meant to be labored over. Drawing quickly will help you help you think on your feet, trust your instincts, and stop over analyzing your movements before putting pencil to paper. These are great skills to have as an artist and essential for avoiding perfectionism.

If contour drawing is practice anyway, you might as well practice these other skills at the same time. Especially with the blind method, how the heck would you ever make that clean and perfect? This is a simultaneous process - draw as your eyes move slowly over your hand. I found my eyes raced away and went too fast for my pencil so I had to really focus and concentrate on one quarter of an inch at a time.

In my blind contour drawing attempt number 2 , you can actually see the little quarter-inch bits as I tried to keep my eyes in tune with my hand movements. In hindsight, I should have drawn in the wrinkles on each finger because they are defined as edges, too. Those lines could have ended up anywhere! Your pencil should move in perfect rhythm with your eyes.

As I said, this was the hardest part for me but it may not be the same for you. As you get into this exercise, the right side of your brain should gain complete dominance over the interfering and very busy left side.

Once you are finished, think about how you have reacted during the exercise. Did you surrender to the process and feel completely quiet? Could you feel the inner struggle to give in to the need to look at your paper? It doesn't matter if your blind contour drawing doesn't resemble your hand because it is meant to achieve 2 other purposes:.

If you successfully drew your hand without looking, and you took your time, then you just used the right side of your brain - the artistic side. I hope you gain a lot from this activity because I know I certainly did. It's like a power boost to what you truly can achieve even though your mind is telling you otherwise. Once I finished doing this experiment, I immediately drew my hand again while glancing between it and the paper.

I must admit, I was really hoping for some magic to happen after all the hype I'd read about it. I guess it's not too bad at this early stage but I clearly need to practice more. Continuous Line Drawing Continuous blind contour line drawing has two rules.

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