A blind contour is a contour drawing made while you look only at the object, never at the paper. You draw slowly, in one continuous line if you can, and let your hand follow your eye.
- Choose something with interesting edges: your hand, a plant, a shoe.
- Turn your chair so you cannot see the paper, or hold a paper plate over your drawing hand.
- Set a timer for two to five minutes.
- Put your eye on one point of the edge and your pencil on the paper. Move both together, slowly, until the time is up.
Key idea
In a blind contour you never look at the paper. The goal is slow, careful looking, not a good-looking picture.
Why it works
When you can see the paper, you start correcting the drawing toward what you expect. Taking the paper away leaves only the object. Your eye and hand learn to move together, and you notice small changes of direction you would have skipped.
Worked example: A lumpy shoe
Kai's blind contour of his sneaker is lumpy, and the lines do not meet where they should. Did the exercise fail?
- A blind contour is judged by the looking, not the result.
- If Kai followed the edges slowly and looked only at the shoe, he did the exercise right.
Answer: No. Odd-looking results are normal; slow looking is the point.
Common mistake
Many people think a blind contour that looks odd is a failure, and they start to peek. Its purpose is training the eye, not making a picture. A strange-looking result usually means you really did look at the object instead of the paper.
A modified contour lets you glance at the paper only to place your pencil when you lift it, then look back at the object. It is a step between blind contour and ordinary drawing.