Contour Line Exercises Due 1/27

Read Section 1 in The Natural Way to Draw. Familiarize yourself well with what contour line drawing is and read on to get familiar with gesture drawing.  For this first series of exercises, you will make several timed contour line exercises using your hands and feet as models. You are not allowed to use an eraser! Learning to trust and rely on observation is more important than "perfect" results. Try your best to fulfill the goals of the exercise to sensitize  your eye. Try not to draw these too small. Each exercise should take up approximately 1/4 of a sheet of newsprint or slightly larger. 

How Blind Contour can help you be a better artist. Links to an external site.

Materials: 

• 6 Newsprint or drawing paper 1/4 9" x 12" to 1/2 sheets 12" x 18"
• 2b or softer pencils (the higher the number the b, the softer and the darker it will be. Ebony pencils are very soft and dark)
• vine charcoal
• A timer (your phone is fine)

Exercises (do half of these exercises in pencil and the other half in vine charcoal): 

1. Contour of your own Hand. Set a timer for 5 minutes before you begin this exercise. Look carefully at your hand or foot and very, very slowly follow the contour edges of your "model" with eye. As your eye traces each small groove and indentation, your hand should follow what your eye is doing. For this exercise you may check in with your page, but you should spend much more time looking at your model. Continue to draw until your alarm goes off. If you "finished" before the timer, you likely drew far too quickly and could have slowed down and felt more nuance in your line. Try again and slow down. Remember, this isn't just an outline of your hand. Include the other contour details such as creases and crevices. 
2. LOOK @ Blind Contour Drawing Video. Links to an external site. Blind Contour of your foot.Set a timer for 5 minutes before you begin this exercise. Set yourself up so that you are able to look only at your hand or foot, but not at all at your page. You will complete a fully blind contour line drawing. Avoid the temptation to "cheat" by looking at your page. Do not pick up your pencil or charcoal from the page. The goal is to train your eye to look very closely at your model and "draw what you see, not what you 'think' you see." The results of this exercise will likely be quite odd. That is to be expected. If you finish too soon or you accidentally look, start again.  
3. Repeat Blind Contour of your foot- change your tool. Repeat exercise 2 but change your drawing tool. If you used pencil in exercise 2, use vine charcoal in exercise 3. Remember, take your time and do not look at your page. 
4. LOOK @  Continuous Line Contour Drawing. VIDEO Links to an external site. Repeat exercise 1 as a Continuous Line of your hand. Set your timer for 7 minutes. This exercise will be similar to exercise 1. This time, you should complete this drawing as one Continuous Contour Line. You should be able to follow one, single line through the whole drawing. Try to not pick your pencil or charcoal. If you must stretch your arm, put your line right back where it was and continue. Challenge yourself to draw slowly and pull out as much small detail. If you finish too soon. Start over and try again. 
5. A Work Slow Continuous Line of your head. Set a stop watch. Challenge yourself to see how slowly you can draw. Push yourself to get as much detail and nuance in your continuous contour line drawing. Try to see how long you can work without picking up your pencil or charcoal and how slowly you can trace your chosen model with your eye. Write the time next to the drawing upon completion.
6. Repeat exercise 5 but even slower- a continuous Line of your head in a different direction and change your drawing tool. Remember to record the time. Push yourself to draw even more slowly this time. 

Upload the 6 results to this assignment. Write the exercise number next to drawing or on the front of the drawing in pencil.  Draw each drawing on one sheet of paper.