This was a very difficult exercise for a perfectionist! I could not get anything to look even vaguely like that sunbird, though I tried 3 or 4 times. My newt, bird of paradise, and springbok ended more representational.  I don't know if this is something I would do for pleasure, but I understand the point of the exercise.

Yikes!  This was a challenge.  I can see this would be helpful in the field when you don’t have much time to capture the image.  Just get the shape and then the details as much as possible considering the subject may be passing thru

It was really hard not to look.  Not sure if it helped my focus.   I was hurrying so I could look.  The drawings for the most part turned out better than I thought they would.  I did two tries on the Springbok, though.

1. I had done this exercise before  in Liz's Bird Drawing workshop.  I realized that I wasn't following the contour with my eye, I was jumping ahead and drawing the shape that I saw.  That was a big difference.  It definitely helped me stay focussed on my subject

I found blind contour drawing helpful for capturing detail on the subject, but more difficult to capture scale and proportion.

I found the blind contour drawing quite challenging as I like to be able to look back and forth but honestly I did better than I expected I was. I’m actually impressed for the most part that my drawings resemble what I was attempting to replicate. I did notice that well I was doing this I was able to focus more on the pictures more and take in more details.

I tried to stay loose and work rather quickly. I think -seeing some of the posts and even my own efforts -blind  contour drawing creates an interesting art style! I wonder if what you are most familiar with is easier. The bird and lizard, which I have drawn before came out  closest to recognizable!

I find it somewhat frustrating to do blind contour drawing. I have to force myself not to reorient my drawing with the object. I'm sure if you keep practicing you'll get better, but I do like to glance at my drawing now and then. Doing contours of the four photographs was definitely easier than drawing a contour of the three dimensional flower I chose for my outside subject. (A slight wind didn't help!)

Scarey for sure!  But fun also.  Definitely funny at times but also some success!  Who knew you could do this!

my first experience was terrible. I made strange drawings but I noticed I nailed the lizard on the feet and the sunbird on the head

I tried the blind contour technique with the four subjects provided in the very nice photographs of the newt, the Sun Bird, the Bird of Paradise, and the Springbok. It was difficult and I tried my best to concentrate. I believe I did the best with Sun Bird and the Bird of Paradise. I drew arrows to indicate the parts that I thought I did best with the blind contour experience. 

Contour drawing challenges my need to be right. It is a difficult exercise for me but worthwhile because of the challenge.

It was difficult to not look at the paper and just stay focused on the subject.  I had to draw real slow to make myself stay focused on the subjects.  

My first try with contour drawing was an unusual experience. I decided perhaps drawing and shading the shapes while looking at them would help. So with my second try of blind contour drawing I felt it came out pretty good, except the springbok.

Never heard of this.   First art class - I read through the other replies and said umm - umm to all of the comments.  Flower, et all are really hysterical.    This requires more attention for sure.

My contour drawings resemble monsters. Second tries did not improve much. Gauging the distance of long lines throws me off. I did focus on the subject. I also took note of the "negative spaces," which might have contributed to my disappointing results. I'd love to hear tips and tricks, if anybody has some.

This was harder than I expected. I don't know how you guys who chose "thousand stemmed " cactus did this. Anyway, my amaryllis flower was good but it had a disjointed stem. The bird was the easiest and I was hesitant to try the springbok. In that position I felt like he might jump away any minute and I couldn't get him in action. He didn't. I had to forget his action and focus on his shape. Good lesson.

Strangely, the pictures that I thought were going to be the easiest turned out to be harder for me. I thought the Newt and the Sunbird would have been easy and turns out it was the one I had the hardest time with.   I can never seem to join my lines together...they are always way off..so much so that my puppy has no head!  Maybe I should have a different starting point!

I like blind contour drawing. The 1st one I do is always the worst one.  It's takes 1-2 for me to get the feel of things and keep the marks I make in perspective to the size/shape of the subject.  My results almost always both make me laugh, and then feel a little bit of skill coming in, when a contour gets pretty close to "right."

Very tricky exercise.  I tended to start out well with the shapes, and got some small details right, but never ended up back where I started.  I tried doing them going round in different directions, but not much different.  It will be worth doing more practice with this technique.

It was a difficult experience, I am more of a multiple lines type of drawing. however, some were easier than others. I had an easier time with the bird of paradise flower since it was composed of main lines. The Green tail sunbird was my second best. Not sure why the Orange spotted Newt was as hard as the Springbok. This is my first time taking a drawing class and I am learning so much. Very much appreciated. Le

This was fascinating.  I hadn’t done this type of drawing before and I found I would start in the upper left hand and work my way clockwise.  When I looked down I would find that the upper half from the 11 o’clock to the 3 o’clock would be fairly ok but the the 4 o’clock to 10 o’clock would be way more distorted, larger, and tilted down such that my lines never even got close to meeting.  I am gonna call it a night but I wonder if I tried to do the same thing but started counterclockwise drawing from the 2 o’clock position if it would have similar warping or opposite warping.  So cool!

Here's my backyard contour drawing.  I've done this type of exercise before, 20 plus years ago, as part of a drawing class.  It is a little funny to see the outcome, but it does help to focus the eye on the subject.  It took a bit of practice to get that focus.