Try blind contour drawing with one household object

Try blind contour drawing with one household object you can leave in view. For this attempt, your eyes follow the subject while your pencil stays on the paper. Look at the drawing when you have finished the line. An existing suitable pencil and a sheet of paper are enough to begin; neither of the bulk supply offers discussed below is required.

Original conceptual blind-contour activity; no branded pencil demonstration or promised artistic result.

The exercise has a definite boundary. RISD Museum's written description asks you to examine an object's outline, follow its edge slowly with your eyes and draw a continuous line without lifting the pencil or looking at the paper. Palm Springs Art Museum's activity also starts with looking closely at the subject. It invites you to examine the completed drawing and try the same object again.

Choose an object that can stay where you put it

Select an ordinary object you are permitted to use. A jug, a small empty container or another familiar household item can give you a subject with an outline you can follow. Place it where you can see it comfortably. Leave a delicate or borrowed object alone if moving it would complicate the session, and choose something else.

Set out paper and a pencil you already know is suitable for that paper. This tutorial uses the pencil dry. A watercolor label on a supply listing does not add water or a painting stage to the exercise. Put away unrelated materials if they are taking up the space you want for the sheet.

Begin drawing without looking at the sheet

Look over your chosen subject before beginning. Choose a starting place on its contour, put the pencil tip on the sheet and turn your attention to the object. Follow the observed edges while leaving the pencil on the paper and keeping your eyes off the drawing. When you end the attempt, look down at what you made. You can then examine the line and choose whether to repeat the same subject.

For drawing without looking, settle that instruction before starting. If you glance at the page or lift the pencil, you can acknowledge what happened and make another attempt if you want. There is no need to relabel the attempt afterward or claim it followed a constraint it did not follow. This article promises no improvement in artistic skill, concentration or mood.

Give an invented jug study a particular view

The following extended example is fictional. Rowan is an adult at her own table with an empty cream jug she is allowed to use, a pencil and a sheet of paper. The jug's shape, the marks described and every observation about the drawing are invented. They are not a test of either linked pencil offer, and they describe no actual museum participant or artwork.

In the example, the jug has a short spout at the left and an open handle at the right. Rowan chooses to see both. She initially places it with the handle almost hidden behind the body, then turns it before starting. The second view gives her the handle opening she wants in her subject. She leaves the jug in that position for the attempt.

Her sheet is wider than it is tall. She chooses an area near its middle for the first pencil contact, without drawing a preliminary jug on the page. The example gives her no measured template, outline to copy or required final size. She wants this first page to contain her response to the view she selected.

Rowan notices the spout's projecting lip, the top of the handle and the low curve beneath the body before she begins. Those are features stipulated for this imaginary jug. Someone choosing a different actual object will have different contours to attend to. There is no reason to add a handle to a bowl or borrow the spout from this example.

Read the fictional first line after it ends

In Rowan's invented first attempt, the left side of her drawing is broad and the handle occupies a small crowded area. A long curve runs across the lower part of the sheet. Near its right end, two marks meet in a tight hook. These are descriptions of the fictional page, without a score for how well she drew the jug.

She first notices that the hook interests her. Its narrow opening looks quite different from the handle she had in mind, and she decides to leave it visible. She does not replace it with a conventional handle as soon as she sees it. Keeping the mark gives her something particular to discuss when she looks at the page again.

Next she compares the large lower curve with the broad area above it. She likes the empty space inside that curve. Her note beside the drawing says, "Wide bottom curve; small hooked handle." The note describes two things she can locate on this invented sheet. It makes no claim that a pencil brand caused either result.

Rowan could stop with this page. She has made a drawing and found a mark she wants to keep. A resemblance she dislikes would also be something she could name without treating the session as a product failure. The exercise has supplied no test of pencil quality or evidence about another person's drawing.

Give a second continuous line drawing its own purpose

For this fictional session, Rowan chooses a second drawing because she wants another encounter with the same handle opening. She leaves the first page beside her when she sets out the next sheet. The first hook remains part of its own drawing; she has no reason to erase it to make room.

She keeps the jug in the selected view. The new attempt has its own start and end. Afterward, the example gives her a longer open loop on the right side of the second page and a shorter curve at the base. The loop is the feature that catches her attention this time. These outcomes are invented, with no prediction that repeating an object will produce them.

Looking at the two fictional pages, Rowan prefers the first bottom curve and the second handle loop. She keeps both drawings. Combining those preferred parts into another picture would be a new choice for a later session. Nothing here requires her to correct either page into an ideal final jug.

For your own continuous line drawing, describe the marks actually on the finished sheet before borrowing a conclusion from this example. You might notice a crowded corner, a large open area or a turn that interests you for another reason. Keep a description you can point to. Leave Rowan's imagined hook and loop with her fictional pages.

Rowan also considers how to keep the pages together. She places the first on the left and the second on the right, with their lower edges beside one another. In that arrangement, the large base curve catches her eye before the separate open loop. Turning both sheets upright on a shelf gives her a different view of the pair, but she prefers them flat on the table while she writes her note.

Her note on the second sheet says, "Open handle loop; short base curve." It does not rank the two pages. She can read each note beside the drawing it describes and recognize which feature she meant. She leaves the imagined dates and pencil labels unspecified because this example has supplied neither. On your actual pages, add whatever identifying details you know and want to retain. The purpose of the note is to help you return to that sheet, without inventing information about the materials or the session.

Leave color and other drawing choices for their own moment

Palm Springs Art Museum presents adding color as an option after its drawing activity. You can also leave your page as the line you made. Decide from the actual drawing you want to keep. This tutorial supplies no watercolor technique, pigment comparison or claim that a listed pencil will produce a particular wash.

In the fictional example, Rowan considers adding a cream patch inside the jug shape. She leaves it out because she wants the open paper within her wide curve to remain visible. That is her preference for this page. Another drawing could have its own color choice without needing to follow hers.

She puts the pencil away and returns the empty jug to its usual place. The two sheets remain beside her note. The small hooked area belongs to the first sheet; the more open loop belongs to the second. Those particular marks are enough for the record she wants to keep from this imagined session.

Read the two bulk pencil accounts separately

The Crayola Watercolor Colored Pencils Classpack account names model 68-7507 and describes dry use as well as watercolor effects. Its title and carton advertise 240 pencils in twelve colors, while the selected variant says 12. Twelve complete loose pencils are pictured beside the carton. Those observations do not count a delivery. The native warning flag and chemical-warning text conflict, so this article offers no safety clearance.

The Unbranded colored-pencil account, SKU 18392724674, retains UPC 741050485361. Its description names 350 pieces and fourteen of each color; its URL names thirty packs and 420. The image has IDIY labels, printed retail boxes and fourteen cropped physical pencil tips and barrels. No complete physical pencil is visible. The catalog name and pictured IDIY label remain unmapped, and neither the photograph nor the listing establishes delivered inventory.

Keep neighboring drawing projects with their own choices

The sketchbook soundtrack afternoon offers an informal session around a familiar object and optional music. You can choose that kind of afternoon independently. Its leisure plan supplies no requirement to keep your eyes off the page.

The teacup facing-pattern study chooses decorative marks to accompany an authored cup picture. Its loops and orange crescents belong to that separate composition. The subject here is an actual household object whose contours you observe while making your own line.

Keep the finished page you actually made

After the attempt, decide whether you want to save the sheet, add a brief note or draw the same object again. If you write a note, make it specific enough to find its subject later. A phrase about the low curve or the crowded handle can belong beside a particular mark; an imagined claim of improvement cannot describe what happened on its own.

Return any household object that needs to go back into use. Keep the paper if it contains a line you want to revisit. The next page can begin with another view or a different subject when you choose it. Your first drawing can remain complete as the record of this attempt.