This is a drawing of a hand:
These are also drawings of hands, but these three are focused on
representing the CONTOUR of the hands.
representing the CONTOUR of the hands.
See the difference?
(The top hand is done in conte and the bottoms hands are done in charcoal.)
Often when we think about drawings or make drawings, we are thinking about contour drawings. As we discussed in class, contour drawings use line to represent edges- Edges of planes, shapes and values.
There are no black lines going around the sides of your hands, but you see the edge of your hand and use a line to describe that edge.
Thus, we learn about contour drawing as a tool to help us learn to SEE those edges and begin to describe them on paper with line.
Betty Edwards in "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" tells us that as we learn to draw we are actually learning how to see. We start by learning to see edges.
So why do we do Blind Contour Drawings?
(blind contour drawings of shoes)
(blind contour drawings of shoes)Our minds want to rebel against doing these drawings, but by forcing ourselves to do them we give our "thinking" mind a chance to take a break and let our eyes take over.
Our minds make up symbols for objects. For example: Our mental symbol for a table is a rectangle, but if you just draw a rectangle you aren't drawing what a table looks like.
We have to learn to stop drawing these symbols, start drawing what we see, and not what we think an object look like.
(blind contour drawings of faces)
So, in blind contour drawings we spend our time looking at the subject- not at the paper. Blind contour is about process, and not about the finished drawing. The process of seeing edges and making lines is the first step on the way to better drawing. When we start out trying to make "perfect drawings" it is harder to get away from the symbols of objects we have in our mind.
Our minds make up symbols for objects. For example: Our mental symbol for a table is a rectangle, but if you just draw a rectangle you aren't drawing what a table looks like.
We have to learn to stop drawing these symbols, start drawing what we see, and not what we think an object look like.
(blind contour drawings of faces)
So, in blind contour drawings we spend our time looking at the subject- not at the paper. Blind contour is about process, and not about the finished drawing. The process of seeing edges and making lines is the first step on the way to better drawing. When we start out trying to make "perfect drawings" it is harder to get away from the symbols of objects we have in our mind.
Practice more blind contour drawing to improve your seeing skills.
Remember it is about the process not the final result on the paper.
To learn to draw you will have to make lots of mistakes, experiment, waste paper, and not be afraid to make some ugly drawings!
Remember it is about the process not the final result on the paper.
To learn to draw you will have to make lots of mistakes, experiment, waste paper, and not be afraid to make some ugly drawings!
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