Saturday, June 19, 2010

Blind (or almost) Contour Drawing


I got the new Carla Sonheim book Drawing Lab for Mixed-media Artists and have done a little bit with it. My cats came out terrible so I am not sharing them. They were just practice really anyhow. Then I saw a lesson on blind contour drawing which is not new to me but I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't want to go find a picture of a giraffe just yet or any other exotic animal so I settled for the dog asleep near me.

I have to admit I looked a few times so I guess this is technically a modified contour drawing. What I like about this kind of drawing is my speed goes way up over trying to do a careful drawing yet I still captured her likeness. When I was done I had a dog in the center of an otherwise empty page so I turned it into a journal page. This was drawn in an Aquabee 9x12 inch sketchbook where my usual journals are either a moleskine purple band or handmade to about that size. I don't normally draw as big as I did on this page. Watercolor added when I decided to make a journal page out of it. The whole page took less than 20 minutes!

7 comments:

  1. I'm going to have to try that... It looks very challenging and a bit scary, to just stare at an object and start drawing around it... You did a good job! You know, you're the third person this morning that I've visited who has done this type of artwork... I'm starting to feel old-fashioned! I look forward to seeing more of your work!

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  2. Great way to keep your drawing skills warmed up, Timaree. Remember, it's not supposed to look like anything, although yours does look like a dog - very nicely done.

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  3. Great job - I think blind contour drawings are nearly impossible and you're brave....

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  4. That's some kind of amazing achievement when speed is accounted! I love it

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  5. I actually love blind contours (and modified!) and do them all the time! They're great for keeping our hand/eye coordination strong.

    This is well done!

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  6. Well done, Timaree! I haven't done a blind contour drawing in quite some time, but you've inspired me to give it a go! Thanks!! nancy

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  7. Nice work and your dog held still!

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