These exercises train the eye to see accurately and introduce the question of how three-dimensional form relates to a two-dimensional drawing surface, the “picture plane”.
STUDENT EXERCISES:
1. Make a small “before instruction” drawing of a figure from memory---clothed, nude, any size or type. No more than 10 minutes, looking only at your own work. This is a record of what you can do right now, to compare with later work; it is NOT a test. Be encouraged: the worse these are, the greater the progress.
2. Newsprint 9 x 12 or 12 x 18 + vine charcoal. Crumple an 8 1/2 x 11 paper loosely. Close eyes. With one hand feel the planes and edges of the crumpled paper, with the other hand draw lines that represent what you feel. DO THIS AS SLOWLY AS YOU CAN BEAR. Try to move the drawing hand and feeling hand at the same pace. This is “total blind contour drawing”.
3. Newsprint, same size choice + same charcoal. Moving your eye very, very slowly, carefully examine the crumpled paper. Imagine how that paper must feel and look to a tiny ant, crawling over its surfaces. DO NOT LOOK AT THE DRAWING PAPER AT ALL. SLOWLY move your charcoal, feeling it is climbing over the paper that you see, moving eye and hand together at exactly the same pace. This is a regular “blind contour drawing”, and it does not matter what it looks like.
4. Another newsprint & charcoal. Next drawing, look mostly at the crumpled paper and occasionally at the drawing paper. This is how we normally draw, looking back and forth at both subject and paper. In the first two exercises, feeling or seeing was focused on ONE object only and therefore observations were especially acute. Now, attention is divided. A GOAL IS NOT TO REDUCE CAREFUL OBSERVATION OF THE SUBJECT BECAUSE YOU’RE ALSO LOOKING AT THE DRAWING.
HOMEWORK: (#1) Do a blind contour drawing of your own legs and/or feet while looking down at them. Look at your paper occasionally and when you need to start your line in a new place.
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