This was described in "Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards in 1979.
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The lesson here is "drawing as metaphor for life"
Looking with a less critical eye makes life and drawing so much more enjoyable. Paraphrasing the author..When you have too much control there is no room for surprise.
Life and drawing are more vibrant and authentic when the unexpected is allowed in.
Looking with a less critical eye makes life and drawing so much more enjoyable. Paraphrasing the author..When you have too much control there is no room for surprise.
Life and drawing are more vibrant and authentic when the unexpected is allowed in.
I used to tell my students "Draw what you SEE, not what you KNOW". Blind contour trains the artist to SEE.
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what you might call regular contour drawing is drawing around the outlines of the subject without lifting the pencil from the paper. even with your eyes open it is a great exercise!
Blind contour drawing rocks - it frees you from any preconceived notion of how something "ought" to look, AND it makes you *really* look at what you're drawing.
One great variation (if you're copying an image that's a flat surface, such as a picture in a book) is to turn the original image upside-down and then draw it in blind contour. The results may be so good that you will be astonished.
Also, as my amazing art teacher always says: draw slowly, as if a ladybug were crawling along the surface you're trying to draw. Our eyes tend to move very fast - but in blind contour, one's hand and one's eye should move at the same (relatively) slow speed. Going slowly helps you really SEE what you're drawing, so you draw the item that's actually in front of you, instead of what the left side of your brain generically "knows" that item to be. It's the difference between, say, drawing the chair that you're looking at, versus drawing the "C H A I R" that your left-brain would produce if you were just told to draw a chair.
You have to get your left-brain out of your right-brain's way, and blind contour is one of the best ways to do that.
One great variation (if you're copying an image that's a flat surface, such as a picture in a book) is to turn the original image upside-down and then draw it in blind contour. The results may be so good that you will be astonished.
Also, as my amazing art teacher always says: draw slowly, as if a ladybug were crawling along the surface you're trying to draw. Our eyes tend to move very fast - but in blind contour, one's hand and one's eye should move at the same (relatively) slow speed. Going slowly helps you really SEE what you're drawing, so you draw the item that's actually in front of you, instead of what the left side of your brain generically "knows" that item to be. It's the difference between, say, drawing the chair that you're looking at, versus drawing the "C H A I R" that your left-brain would produce if you were just told to draw a chair.
You have to get your left-brain out of your right-brain's way, and blind contour is one of the best ways to do that.
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I agree with what you say about upside-down drawing (including that I was astonished at the results), and would like to add that upside-down drawing is very absorbing. Everything except you and the image just goes away. I think it is because the image is something you have never seen before.
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Another stunning drawing exercise is to copy a face but upside down, eyes on the bottom.
Even the first try will be spectacularly better than a regular attempt. We are so attuned to what we think we know a face looks like we can't "see" what is really right in front of our eyes.
Even the first try will be spectacularly better than a regular attempt. We are so attuned to what we think we know a face looks like we can't "see" what is really right in front of our eyes.
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You're right. Blind contour drawing is wonderful. I use a black sharpie because the lines are so deliberate and indelible. The longer your brain remains in "neutral" and you can forget what the object you are drawing is "supposed" to look like, the better the results. Thanks for writing this.
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I'm voting for you for President....
You're the Best and only choice.
You're the Best and only choice.
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This was one of the ways I worked my way out of "controlled" drawing. I still love doing blind contour, and I do not regard the results as "horrible" or "ugly". They are wonderfully loose and creative. Another change that surprised me even more was drawing with my left hand - I am right-handed - as I notice the artist in the photo doing. One of my art teachers and a book by Betty Edwards, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain", provided the guidance I needed to find new life in my art.
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That's a great book!
I also recommend "Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing: Meditation in Action"
I also recommend "Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing: Meditation in Action"
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