ROSSI STUDIOS Crafts

Sketchbook Club

Week 1: Contour & Blind Contour Drawing

Contour drawing is a basic and helpful drawing technique which is perfect for sketchbooks. Because so few materials are required, it's an easy exercise to do just about anywhere!

Materials:

Sketchbook or sketchpad

Pencil

Something to draw

Directions:

1. Choose an object, person, or pet that you would like to draw.

2. Start with a blind contour drawing. The idea with this exercise is not to create a beautiful or perfect-looking piece. Rather, the goal is to really study the contour and lines of your subject.

3. Looking only at your subject and never at your paper, carefully follow the lines that you see. Let your hand mimic what your eyes are seeing. Avoid lifting your pencil from the paper. You want the linework to be as continuous as possible.

4. Take your time and go slowly, following every bump and curve that you see.

5. For a contour drawing, the idea is to follow the outside lines only.

6. While you can look at the paper during your contour drawings, it is still a good idea to focus mostly on the object you are drawing.

Drawing Dogs
Karen chose one of her favorite subjects, her Chihuahua Taco, for this contour drawing.

Taco
Here is an actual photo of Taco, to show the real subject that Karen was working from.

Handy
A common subject of blind contour drawing is the hand. Because there are so many lines and wrinkles in the hands, they make for perfect objects to draw.