Sketching Drawing – What is Blind Contour Drawing?
Sketching Drawing What is Blind Contour Drawing
?Blind contour drawing is one of the most powerful techniques you can use to kick-start a creative drawing session. Read on to discover what it is and how you will benefit from it
What is blind contour drawing?
In a nutshell, blind contour drawing is a method of calming your overly talkative left brain hemisphere in order to gain access to your right brain hemisphere; your very own artist within! It is the specific skills of perception used by the right brain that we need if we are to draw well. Blind contour drawing is probably one of the most powerful methods we have available to us for making the cognitive shift from left to right brain mode.
Contour drawing is when you draw the outside shape of an object. The shape of a contour is determined by both the object and your viewpoint. Change your view of the object and the contour will usually change too (except for a perfect sphere whose contour looks the same from all angles). Many people mistake contour drawing for blind contour drawing; they are not the same and achieve different results.
Contour drawing is used to obtain the outer shape of an object when drawing; blind contour drawing is used to assist with the cognitive shift from left to right brain. Blind contour drawing also records your pure perception of an object as you draw. Now we know what blind contour drawing is let's find out how we do it.
How do we do blind contour drawing?
The obvious reason why it is called blind contour drawing is because you do not look at your drawing paper as you draw! Find an interesting object with lots of detail on it: a piece of tree bark, a textured rock, or use the wrinkles of your non-drawing hand. Fix a sheet of paper to your work surface so it cannot move when you draw. Hold your pencil normally and locate it over the paper in a position that gives plenty of room around this start position. You don't want the pencil to run off the paper when you draw.
Now turn your body and head away from your paper so that you cannot possibly see the paper (not even from the corner of your eye!) Hold you object in your other hand or place it on a convenient surface so that you can closely observe all the fine details it contains. Now choose one point on the outside edge of the object and lower your pencil to the paper. This is your starting point.
Now, simply stare at this starting point on the object (do not look at your paper at any time!) for about 15 seconds. Then, very, very slowly start to move your eyes along the edge of the object AND at the same time and with the same slow pace move you pencil and start to draw. DO NOT LOOK AT THE PAPER AT ALL!
As you observe the edge of the object, try to see every tiny little change in the edge itself and move your pencil exactly the same way. If the edge dips in draw that dip. If the edge bulges out, draw that bulge. Do everything very, very slowly. You are now doing blind contour drawing!
What you will experience
/>Blind contour drawing throws up some interesting experiences and sensations that nearly everyone notices. The first will probably be a mental conflict as your left brain protests wildly at having to do such a silly task. "How can you hope to draw if you can't see what you are drawing?" it will repeat to you. "Look at the paper" it will tell you. Ignore these protests and after a couple of minutes you should find yourself starting to relax. This indicates that your left brain has decided to let you get on with it. Now your right brain can actually take over the job and it is at this point you may actually feel the shift in cognition from left brain to right brain.
After a couple of minutes more of slowly observing and slowly moving your pencil to follow the contour of the object, you will really begin to enjoy seeing all of the fine detail that this object has to offer. At this point, you have achieved the goal of blind contour drawing; to help you make the shift into your artistic mode of seeing!
After 20 minutes of drawing, look at your results. The drawing' may look like a mass of irrelevant squiggles but in fact it is a record of your pure perception of the contour of the object and has a beauty' all of its own.
If you see examples of so called blind contour drawing, and the drawing looks quite like a real object there is a good chance the person cheated and looked at the paper whilst drawing; so don't be fooled! The Tourist Industry in London BORNEO Rugby 7s tournament (29 – 31 October 2010) Men are from Mars, Women are From the Mall: Traveling Made Easy Not so famous exotic destinations of India - Lensdowne Cheap Mexico Beachfront Lots – Heavy Private & Public Investment Barcelona is a Chocoholics Paradise Have a Merry Christmas at the Holiday Parks Manali Travel to Himalayas Mussoorie Tour Athens Greece Tours Fishing Trips To Alaska – Top Five Locations For Fishing Activities Tag Heuer Replica Watches — your best choice on Christmas Day Do You Hear of Links of London Jewelry?