Contour Drawing

Learn:

• What contour drawing is
• How to do blind contour drawings
• How to do semi-blind/modified contour drawings

Contour Drawing

Contour drawing is an artistic technique in which one draws only the outline of an object, as well as the lines one sees in it. Contour drawing allows you to translate exactly what you see onto paper. This allows for really accurate observational skills. The goal of contour drawing is to make a line that is true to your object, and to train your hand to copy your eye’s movement. You should be contour drawing whenever you draw something. The two main types of contour drawing are blind contour drawing and modified (or semi-blind) contour drawing. These two will be covered below.

You will need:

• A pencil/pen
• Paper
• An object – (This can be just about anything, but make sure that it’s not too big. Shoes work very well as they have clear, well-defined lines. Your object can also be a part of the body)

Blind Contour Drawing

Blind contour drawing is an excellent way to to train the eye to draw what it really sees, rather than what it thinks it sees. This is because you will not be looking at the paper, ONLY at the object.

First place your pencil/pen on one spot on the paper. Now focus your eye on one part of the object. Move you eye along the outline of the object, and try to get your pencil to follow that movement.

Once you get the outline done, move onto the finer details of the object (wrinkles, holes, etc.). You want to try and get as many details in as possible, without looking at your paper. Try to keep one smooth, continuous line with your pencil/pen.

The first blind contour drawings you do will probably be quite inaccurate. Don’t be disheartened though! Do more drawings, and you’ll find that with practice, it’ll get easier and easier to accurately record what your eyes see, without looking at your paper.

Modified Contour Drawing (Semi-blind)

Closely related to blind contour drawing; but here you get to steal a few sneak peeks!

You may look at your drawing only to see that you are in the right place, and to check our progress, but not to draw. This makes sense, because when you look at your drawing whilst you draw, you are either drawing from memory, or something you made up. To draw naturally and accurately you must closely study your object.

So to do a modified/semi-blind contour drawing, look closely at the object, whilst checking your paper for reference. You should have about a 3:7 split. It may help you to count, 3 counts looking at your paper, and 7 at your shoe.

Thanks for reading, keep practicing!