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24/02/20
A few days ago I read a post in a Mixed Media Facebook group by someone asking for a few people to join in with an art project and give her some feedback on it. I joined her group out of nosiness and found out I would need paper, paint, collage materials or handpainted papers. Well, as it happened I had spent a couple of hours the previous day in my shed making these, not with any particular project in mind, just for the heck of it.
Turns out the idea of the project was to do a blind contour drawing which involves studying a photo and drawing it, without looking at the paper you are drawing on. I had never done this before, it might be a well kent technique of artists , but it was new to me. I didn’t realise that I should keep the pencil on the paper whilst drawing, but here’s what I came up with. The hare turned out quite dashing, but I don’t know if the woman in the photo would be too delighted with my version of her!
I , however, was quite chuffed with her. I found the technique liberating because it doesn’t matter if the drawing looks exactly , or even remotely, like the photo, that’s not the point.
You can see blind contour drawing in action here
I gave her a 2nd go, this time drawing on some of my painted paper.*
I wasn’t too happy with her nose, so I cut it out along with one of her sunglasses lenses and her dress. I coloured bits of her with paint markers and stencils, and laid her over one of my painted papers. She is so different from what I usually do that I can’t even tell if she’s any good or not, but I do know that I had fun creating her and I forsee more blind contouring in my future.
I also cut the first drawing out and laid it on top of various painted papers, which is quite interesting, I thought.
* Well, actually not painted, but done using the shaving cream marbling method which I tried for the first time at the newly formed craft club in my village. More of which in another blogpost.
UPDATE : on 31/01/21 I started 100 days of blind contour drawings, you can read about it here
love them…
during one of my art certificate years, we did blind drawing, I loved it most when I suddenly found that I was going to draw on the table, even though I though I had masked the drawing paper down on said table…not many of my drawings even looked like the subject…
I think what it gives one though is the abstractness that often we wish we could do but it never looks quite right…
another “drawing” is photographing a crack in say a street pavement, printing said crack and then add things to it…
Thank you Catherine, yes I think you’re right, if I had tried to draw an abstract version of the face I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been happy with it. The crack sounds interesting, do you mean printing the photo? or some other kind of printing?
Yes printing the photo, although I guess if you could replicate it by drawing, then go for it….
Hi Fran,,,,I love your latest post,,,You are a natural-born realist with the human form. Very exciting work,,,and what I admire about you and your art,,,’YOU TAKE CHANCES”. I would be “bored” to tears if I didn’t do that with my textile/mixed-media art.
Have you ever taught classes? I was a art major college drop-out,,,but that didn’t stop me from having fabulous teaching gigs for “gifted and talented” art programs in secondary, and high schools,,,
GOOD LUCK in making new/exciting discoveries,,,,hugs
Lynne R. Sward
Thank you so much Lynne,I find myself wanting to try lots of different things nowadays, having almost exclusively worked in textiles for the last 25 years. I haven’t taught classes (although I did lead the shaving cream marbling in the new art club) . I didn’t go to art school and art teaching at my school wasn’t very adventurous, so there are lots of things I haven’t tried, yet!
Hi Fran,,,,I don’t think that having a college education matters “one wit”,,,,There are many successful, terrific artists “out there”, enjoying the creative process, and actually,,,I do believe that I was lucky regarding how my education was slightly limited. I’m not certain presently in the Art Education world, if teachers are demanding that their students, “COPY” their style, or not,,,but I’m happy to report,,,that I totally ignored that system…plus, and we’re lucky that we don’t have to worry about “the grade”,,,,that is used to judge some-one’s talent,,,thanks for letting me share,,,,
Hope to meet you someday,,,and I love all of your posts,,,hugs,,,Lynne
Must give this a try…
Yours turned out really well..result far away from what would appear when looking to draw…awesome…š
I know, right, there’s no way I could have done it if I was looking!
Both hare and wifie are splendid! X
nae lookin, who’da thunk!
I love this Fran. And your papers are really lovely. Have you tried the momigami method of paper kneading. You can find detailed instructions in Cas Holmes book – “The Found Object in Textile Art”. It’s my all time favourite book.
Thank you Megan, that sounds interesting, I will check it out.
I forgot to say you need thin gloves. I use junk mail and the ink will rub off the paper (not all of it). The paper ends up like fabric. It’s really interesting
Intriguing!