Blind Contour Drawing.... What it is... and how it can help you!
Blind contour drawing is drawing the outside edges of something, without looking at the paper.
Let your eyes travel the edges of your subject, and let your pencil
match the speed of your eyes. It's almost a trust exercise with
yourself. The hardest part about it is NOT LOOKING!
Put on your non-judgmental hat... seriously, you'll need it. :)
And why would anyone want to do this exercise?
Because
it trains your eyes to really look at the edges of something, and
you'll probably end up with some very interesting drawings that you can
then develop into some very interesting paintings!
Click here for more detailed instruction.
My friend and fantastic artist, Margaret Stermer-Cox, introduced me to "Blind Contour Friday's."
She's very dedicated to maintaining and improving her drawing skills
with daily practice. If you want to improve quickly, daily drawing is
the very best way to go about it. Check out what she does here.
Thanks for letting me share your terrific blog here, Peggy!
“Once upon a time, there was an artist living in Honor, Michigan. (ummmm that would be ME) She read about the Honor Area Restoration project (HARP), a group of citizens that were dedicated to making things better where they lived. “How can I help?” she asked herself. Her skill was art making, so she decided to do a series of paintings depicting local scenes and the “Honoring Honor” series was born. $5 from every print;$3 from each note card set; and 50 cents from each individual card sold,will be donated directly to HARP.”
Click HERE if you are interested in buying a print or note-card of the images pictured. Or maybe forward the link to anyone you know that vacations here! THANK YOU!
I came across this idea in a book called "Watercolor Wisdom" by Jo Taylor. (See the book here.) It's a really fun way to start off a painting.
First,
you might want to have some idea of where your light, medium and dark
values will go... then squeeze and drag the pure gooey pigment along
some of the edges... (or you could use a palette knife)
Next,
load a big brush with just water, and stroke the drippy brush over the
wet paint, mixing the colors on the paper. Keep adding clean water
(rinse your brush) to the moist paint on the paper, pushing and mixing
the colors in the direction you want them to go.
I added some scraping too, in the example below. It's not quite finished... but is a good start to finish up later!
Next
time you are scratching your head trying to decide what to paint...
grab a couple of tubes of paint and draw with them directly onto the
paper... Then all you need add is water!
