The springbok was my favorite.

This was hard. It seemed to be a matter of trying to match my mind with what I was seeing & it sometimes felt that timing was out of whack between the two. Will add the Springbok with next reply.  Felt the Springbok was better & that the bird of paradise flower was the worst - which is frustrating because one of my best large paintings was a bird of paradise flower. Good thing I didn't have to not look at the canvas LoL!

Yes it is an interesting exercise. I have not gone outside yet to try it.  But I did sense that I was spending more time looking at details on the subject rather than just trying to get the general impression on paper. It will also be interesting to see how this ties in to "sketching" which seems to lend itself to capturing general impressions rather than structural details.

In general, I want to try to spend more time looking at the subject than the journal page, so this was a nice exercise to reinforce that habit. What I liked best was finding the angles of the negative space around the various subjects and observing that and trying to make the mark on the page with confidence.

I do think contour drawing helped me stay completely focused on the subject, but I had no sense of where my hand was on the page or where the beginning of the drawing actually was. Because it is so cold outside, I sketched a birch tree. Again,  I was unsure of where the drawing had actually begun but the overall shape wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

 

Definitely helped me stay focused. My mind drifted even after a short period demonstrating my lack of focus which I need to improve. Good exercise. I learned much especially that I can actually capture some parts without looking at the paper!

This was a lot of fun. I didn't go outside because it was freezing out, but did the given examples a couple of times each - not perfect but I liked the way worked - I did add the branch and eye of the bird post-exercise...I also did it in my regular notebook because I thought it would be a waste of paper - but it was not.

After doing these exercises, it was apparent to me that steady and  SLOW  is the key.   This morning I took more time to do the blind contour and I think it's a noticeable improvement. 

Blind Contour of a Succulent.  I like how focused I felt during the exercise

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I had a lot of fun!!

I must say I produced some very abstract art here :-). But I will keep trying!

This exercise was more successful than I anticipated.   I found that I make somewhat fatter bodies than the pictures.  Being aware of this is very helpful.

I thought it was a piece of cake..haha..and the results are pretty funny!

Very difficult. All my contour drawings looked like amoebas and never really improved.  It did help me stay focused.

Wow!  That was different and quit difficult.   My first two were barely recognizable, the nest two MIGHT you might have been able to ID?

Great exercise however and I was able to pick out something that made me say "oh, that looks a little like that part of the original"  Very cool.  Thanks.

• I really love this technique. It is very fun and is helping me so much. This is actually my best one.

Questions:

Why does my pencil speed change?

Should I move my arm or my hand?

Does peripheral vision of the drawing affect the outcome?

Does keeping the notebook firmly planted on a tabletop help?

I'm having trouble believing that some of the posted images I'm seeing here were done blindly.  This was, and I'm really enjoying this exercise! Eye-hand coordination has always been my issue, and I've learned that it improves with practice and training. So this is a very good exercise for me. I also learned this time, as I'm left-handed, to start on the right.

And yes, focusing on the subject really helped get the essentials right, even if the drawing turned out awry.

Practice makes perfect!

As part of this section I am practicing sketching using my Sibley field guide in an effort to get shape and color, also objects from around my location outdoors.

I have enjoyed this section. I attempt the blind contour sketch and then attempt an eyes open sketch. I follow this with lots of questions and then research the answer. So far I have done the Eastern red newt and the Green-tailed sunbird. I found it very difficult to get the colors correct on the bird.

I found this to be so valuable!  My final sketch already was a lot better than my first.  I can see how practicing this would help train my brain to "talk" to my sketching hand in a better way.  I plan on continuing to play with this technique.

This was an interesting exercise.  I found that not looking at all really helped me focus on the small details in contours. However, I found checking in a key points to see if I was close to where I was supposed to be helped me to both focus on the subtle details and complete the image.

I found this interesting. Yes, it did make me focus completely on my subject.  The drawings were not as off- base as I thought they would’ve been. I’m so enjoying this class. It’s such a great opportunity to really learn HOW to nature journal. Liz is such a fabulous instructor. She’s so encouraging!