Contour Drawing is Fun - Sunflowers and Hydrangeas

I have been finding some exciting and awesome artists on the web these past few months. Their work inspires and energizes me.  Going through my past year's SketchingEveryday drawings, I realized that I have not done much contour drawing. Sure, I did a few blind contours as warm-up exercises each summer, but  drawing the contour of something can be so much more! Case-in-point, check out Nora MacPhail's contour drawings with watercolor on her blog. Aren't they fun? 


Here are yesterday's and today's line drawings. I decided to try a couple of my favorite flowers (Sunflowers and Hydrangeas) in modified blind contour drawing. I say modified, because I did look at the paper (about 20 percent of the time) while I was drawing. 80 percent of the time, however, I only looked at the reference while my pencil moved. I like how these came out for study accuracy, but they look stiff to me. I decided I'd challenge myself a little more on these and do each one in watercolor four times. Each time, I'll vary my approach and technique. So far, I've got two sunflowers done and two on the board for tomorrow. You can see today's paintings here.

Blind Contour Hummingbird

See more about Blind Contour here.

Rose Of Sharon

Today's sketch is a little blind contour study of a Rose Of Sharon from life.

Blind Contour Flower Drawings

Today I did this blind contour drawing of some flower heads. I used the reference photos I posted here yesterday for this week's drawing challenge. I purposely didn't pick off the dead or spent blooms as it adds more choices for interesting shapes. When I think shapes, instead of things as I draw, it helps me to get into "the zone" or a better frame of mind. If you haven't tried it yet, give blind contour drawing a try. Remember to move very slowly as you caress the object with your eyes. Try to really feel the shapes as you are drawing.

Drawing Exercises for Improving Your Skills

There are several easy exercises that are very beneficial to developing the skill of drawing. Today I did a blind contour drawing from life. I used one of my potted flowers as a model.

Drawing elephants is fun and easy too! Because of their unique shapes, seeing them seems easier to do. I've used my figurine elephant collection on numerous occasions in my workshops as models. One of my favorite exercises is to do 2 minute gesture drawings with them. We turn the object 1/4 turn after each two minutes is up. In just eight minutes, you should have four different views. It's a great exercise to get you loosened up and really makes you see shapes instead of things! I've taken four different shots of our red elephant here and I hope you will try this exercise for our next sketching challenge. Even if you have no intention of turning it in, just do it OK? Eight minutes is all you need. And all you industrious people, please feel free to finish and add some details to your favorite pose. You will have to use your imagination and some artistic license as this elephant is not very detailed.


See more information about doing these exercises on your own here. 

Some Drawing Exercises

I can't believe I've been drawing everyday for eleven straight days now! I still feel pretty rusty so I decided to do some drawing exercises today. I like drawing objects and doing two minute gestures. After each two minutes is up, I turn the object 1/4 turn. I have a little hummingbird nicknack I like to draw and since I am now in Hummerland, I decided to draw it today. This is not a masterpiece by any means, just good ole practice! I also did a blind contour where I caress the object (follow the contour) with my eyes as I draw without looking down at the paper. If I get lost I can look, reposition my pencil, and then continue as before, drawing without looking. Hint: When drawing from life, always keep the same eye level while looking at the object as you draw. I use a pedestal (large coffee container) to bring the object up to eye level so I'm not looking down on it and sometimes use an easel for my pad.

Fall Just Around The Corner

Here's a blind contour drawing I did of a scarecrow decoration I own.

Gnome Drawing

Here is a blind contour drawing of a handmade gnome doll I have.

Blind Contour Bird - Another Exercise Drawing

Blind Contour Scarecrow

My friend, Bobbie Zurbach, came for lunch today. She brought her sketchbook and more than two dozen drawings that she has done from my DrawingEveryday Blog. I was very impressed! They are really good.

She said she could not do Blind Contour so we spent a good part of the afternoon doing just that. She really enjoyed it. I told her to pick her favorite one and I'm posting it here tonight. It's of a handmade fall scarecrow decoration I have. I took snapshots and will be posting some more of her drawings along with some of the other submissions I have received at the end of this season. Sometimes I feel like Gusteau from "Ratatouille" and instead of saying "Anyone can cook", I say, "Anyone can draw".

Same Bird / Different View

I love this exercise. Today here's another blind contour drawing of the same bird carving I sketched yesterday. When drawing from life, it's important to keep a consistent eye position so that your perspective and drawing angle do not change.

Blind Contour Bird - Exercise Drawing

Here's another Blind Contour Drawing. This one was done today from a little wooden Wren bird carving.

Blind Contour Seashell Drawing

A Blind Contour Drawing is extremely valuable in learning to SEE BETTER. This is not meant to be a great picture. It's a training exercise. See more about Blind Contour here. Go ahead, what have you got to lose? Give it a try yourself! And remember, everything is sketchable.

Another Blind Contour Exercise

This Blind Contour was done from another old (crude by today's standards) garden ornament that I inherited from my Aunt Milly. See the definition of Blind Contour in yesterday's post.

Blind Contour Exercise

This is a "Blind Contour Drawing" of a sunflower that the birds planted by one of our bird feeders. "Blind contour" is an excellent exercise which improves hand - eye coordination and really helps you to SEE. The idea is to refrain from looking down at your paper while you slowly draw your subject, caressing the object with your eyes. If you loose your way, you can look down and reposition your pencil if need be, but while drawing, you must not look at your paper, concentrating only on following the contours of the shape. The results will not be completely accurate, but often makes for some interesting studies.

Workshop A Big Success

"Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins." ~ Jim Rohn

Sept. 12 - 14th, 2008 WORKSHOP - Day One

WARM UP EXERCISE
I started today's lessons with a warm up exercise I came up with at the spur of the moment. Holding the pencil like a wand, I encouraged students to use their whole arm and wrist while making various scribbles on their paper. Everyone seemed to agree that this helped them to loosen up for the sketching to follow.



TWO MINUTE GESTURES
I have some wood bird carvings and decided to use them as models for our two minute gesture sketches. After the allotted time was up, each person turned their bird clockwise a quarter of a turn. Each participant did a dozen sketches, three birds, four views each.

BLIND CONTOUR DRAWING
This is a wonderful exercise that I haven't done in a long time. None of the students had ever done a blind contour. This teaches hand eye coordination. You can't look down at your paper while you are drawing. You must only look at the subject while the pencil is moving. This trains you to caress the object with your eyes. After this exercise, students followed along with handouts as we went on to drawing a hummingbird from my Six Steps to Sensational Sketches Demo.



MONOTONE VALUE PAINTING
After lunch break, we did a value painting of a lighthouse. I explained WET-IN-WET techniques on painting skies, grass, water and buildings. Here is my demo painting.

SEE DAYS TWO AND THREE ON MY 9/13/08 AND 9/14/08 WEB LOG POSTS.

"If you get into the habit of sketching, you'll never be bored."
~ Sandy Sandy