I’m in the course of a instructing journey, first in New Zealand and now in Australia and one of many methods I begin my workshops is to have college students do a blind contour drawing. There are a lot of the explanation why I do that and it all of a sudden occurred to me to share this concept with you.
First off, let’s outline what I imply by a blind contour drawing. It’s a approach of drawing the contour of an object, very slowly, and with out trying on the drawing as it’s made (therefore you draw “blind”). There’s no shading concerned. Quite it’s about drawing the sting of the thing. I additionally like to incorporate every little thing you seen inside, responding solely with line.
Have your paper on the desk, pen in hand (and I believe utilizing a pen is healthier because it creates a bolder outcome than a pencil), after which flip away from the paper, solely seeing the thing you’re about to attract (not the paper).
One other technique that was launched to me by one in all my New Zealand workshop college students is to position the paper beneath the desk the place you may’t see it. This was a greater possibility for her as a result of she wasn’t in a position to twist her physique. One other concept is so as to add a visible barrier between you and the paper like Sue did.
Again within the workshops, I set the timer for quarter-hour. There’s at all times numerous moaning and groaning on the considered drawing one thing for that lengthy with out with the ability to see it, however I encourage them onward!
I warn them that they will really feel an intense pull to have a look at the drawing, particularly in the event that they lifted the pen off the paper, as they’d need to return the tip of the pen again to the right place. I urge them to withstand the urge to look!
The purpose of doing a blind contour drawing, for me anyway, is to heat up your hand and thoughts, to create a connection between them. As you have a look at the thing, you concurrently reply along with your hand, making a mark. You create strains on paper with out judgment – you can’t decide what you can’t see! And whenever you lastly do see it, your interior critic can not decide it, as a result of it is aware of you couldn’t see it as you drew it.
Another excuse to do a blind contour drawing is to take time, to decelerate (particularly essential in today of every little thing excessive velocity), to transcend trying to actually seeing. It’s a chance to enter a form of meditative zone of deep trying.
When you battle to get into the studio, I encourage you to go in, sit down, and draw one thing with out with the ability to see it – make a blind contour drawing. There’s a satisfaction of placing pen to paper and there’s a satisfaction in seeing the outcome. It might not look precisely like the thing you’ve drawn, how might it? However it’s going to have the essence of it, and will probably be a recording of your shut commentary. And, doing this blind contour could have stirred your inventive juices sufficient to inspire you to choose up a pastel or do a thumbnail or discover a resolution to that portray that’s providing you with hassle.
You can also make a blind contour drawing something. Draw your hand, your foot, your face, your instruments, the view out your window, the lamp, your telephone, the bizarre chaos within the nook of your studio. You don’t must get overwhelmed or anxious since you gained’t have the ability to see what you’re drawing!
So the subsequent time you end up avoiding the studio, choose up a pen and do a blind contour drawing! Look. See. Do. And also you’ll really feel good for having carried out it.
And my college students? Once we collect collectively to have a look at what they’ve carried out, I’m at all times at all times in awe of the outcomes.
The extra an individual didn’t have a look at the drawing, the extra the outcome doesn’t look correct. And, the extra fascinating the drawing is! The drawings are replete with superb strains and circles and areas made by a hand responding to what was seen by the attention. They’re pages of mark-making as a response to trying deeply, to slowing down and searching and seeing. To attract with out strain to get it “proper” is releasing, ending with an end result that’s fantastic and that can’t be judged by its illustration.
When you’ve completed studying this put up, put in your timer for 5 minutes (and I encourage you to place it on for at the very least 10!), choose up a pen, any previous pen, discover some paper, any previous paper, and do a blind contour drawing, then let me know within the feedback how that went for you.
Till subsequent time,
~ Gail