Here’s another fun drawing exercise for you to practice overriding your brain and letting your eyes do all the work: blind contour.
Kind of an odd name for a technique where your eyes do all the work, right? The “blind” part just means you are drawing without looking at your paper.
Some folks call it pure contour drawing instead, so people don't get confused and try to do it with their eyes closed. But here in Fun Drawing Club, we’re sticking with the term blind contour. Just promise me you’ll keep your eyes open!
Step 1: Pick a single shoe from your closet - one with fun curves, laces, or details
Step 2: Set a timer for three minutes (or just play your favorite song if timers give you anxiety!)
Step 3: Lock your eyes on the shoe and start drawing. Trace the contours with your eyes, letting your hand mimic the movement on the page. No peeking down, and no erasing - just let your lines be!
Here’s mine. How funny looking is that shoe? It’s weird, but you can totally tell what it is. Look at those descriptive lines for the shoe laces. That’s probably my favorite bit.
The cool thing about blind contour drawings is that even though they look very strange, there are always bits here and there that let you know exactly what the object is. That’s the power of contour drawing!
How I set it up: I just plopped my shoe right on top of my laptop and books. I started the clock and let my eyes find the edges, stopping right at the 3-minute mark, even though I hadn’t captured every single detail. Timing your sketches is a magic trick for getting lost in the process without getting overwhelmed.
So go ahead - grab a shoe and give it a try!
Then, hop over to our Skool community and share your weird shoe drawing with us!
There’s a dedicated thread for this week’s prompt in the Prompts & Shares tab. It’s totally free to join our Skool community, and drawing together is a whole lot more fun than drawing alone!
Happy sketching,
Beth
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