Although the visual results were humbling, I felt the exercise has helped me see the entire object and think about what I want to include in a drawing in advance of putting pencil to paper. Although the drawings started well, I soon lost a sense of proportion on the page as I tried to move my hand away from the start. I had to be absolutely focused as my mind's eye tried to transfer visual input into hand movement.

Blind contour drawing is something I've never been comfortable with. All things considered I think my drawings turned out pretty well. I tried to focus on the subject and plan where I wanted to start based on where it seemed the best connecting point would be. My attention was on the shape of the subject and the scale it should be on my paper space. It was interesting focusing on connecting the motion of my hand to the visual input from what I was seeing. The process did make me feel more focused and connected to my subject.

This was fun, and after the first one I had to tell myself to slow down.  By the third one I was coaching myself to really pay attention to the outside lines.

I had problems connecting the beginning and the end of the drawing. It is hard not to focus on doing it 'right' but I do think it helps you focus on the subject. My best attempt was the Bird of Paradise.

This was a neat exercise - yes it did help me focus on the subject, and only on the outline and contours.  I was surprised that I was able to capture the general form :)

This exercise really made me laugh, and I had to concentrate because I wanted to look back at my drawing to see "where" I was on the page. Most difficult, finishing the drawing at the same spot I began.

Had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs looking at the ‘finished’ drawing. Took my time, lots of focus and intent.

Contour drawing helps in looking closely to object. I found it easy it is an 2D object. Especially if it is flat. Yet, rounded and curved object was a bit challenging to draw from image. As for taking it to the outdoors, the first trial with my pot of cactus was not a success-erased it. I attached the second trial which depicted the contour line of the cactus in pot.

The below are the drawings for the images in the course.



 

My trial drawing the cactus in pot.

This was a fun exercise! I was surprised by the results (it made me feel close to a 5 year old child drawing :)

It helped me stay focused on my subject, yet I had to resist the temptation to look down at the paper. I tried this a few times, to see which was the best starting point. The hardest subject to draw seemed to be the springbok. I got the feeling that, overall, this exercise improves with drawing and drawing...!

It was difficult to avoid the temptation to look down at the paper.  But once again it forced me to slow down and focus, which is the point of this class, for me.  I also experimented with drawing counter-clockwise/dominant hand, clockwise/dominant, and clockwise/non-dominant.  It didn't seem to matter much for this exercise, but slowing my eye focus was key.  I was kind of relieved when I got to the feet of the springbok and saw they overlapped and I didn't have to go all the way up and down the legs!  

I love this lighthearted exercise.  Yet it is also fascinating to trust my senses to guide my hand and see that some things are scaled properly. That was a complete surprise!

It was good for focusing.

I was hard to do with lines that were near each other, like the legs on the spring bok.

Parts of my drawings were OK but others were not recognizable.

Interesting exercise, very different from anything I've tried before. I was so worried to forget where I was that I might not have focused enough. Not sure. But it was fun!

That certainly was a test and amusing for sure.  Not posting my attempts.  I did fairly well on the Bird of Paradise I think because its lines were straighter.  the other three were well, lets not discuss.  Can definitely see where this skill would be usefull in the field.  Great exercise and I am going to keep trying!

Oh my, this was great fun, because I had no expectations of the drawing being any good! It was so HARD to not reflexively look at the paper, but I did it, even when I wondered if my pencil lead had run out. And yes, it certainly helped me focus on the contour of the subject.  So far I have found NOT-blind contour drawing (vs. "short and sketchy") easier. I'm not sure why. It somehow keeps me on track or forces me to look more at the subject?
I was surprised that I kept the "parallel" lines in the newt's tail, narrowest flower petals, bird tail, and springbox's legs "together."  And on a few drawings, I nearly ended up where I started!

Hilarious and fun!

Now to find something out in the yard to try....

?

I was so proud of not looking down.... then at the end, when I did look down, I almost cried with laughter. A fun and interesting experience!

This is definitely harder than I remember it being when I tried it years ago. At that time it was just a warm up exercise. I can see that it will be a great tool for quick sketching and that is motivation for practice. This was my third try at the newt.

My drawings were barely  recognizable. The seemed to want to be something squashed more than to be a newt, flower, and a sunbird. 

Yes it helped.

The plants were definitely more difficult for me than the animals. It did help me stay focused though and not get lost in focusing on a specific detail too soon.

This was scary, and I admit I cheated by looking up now and then...I really could not just let my pencil roam over the page. But I'm going to keep practicing blind contour dwg, because I think it'll help allay my fear of not being able to draw well. It really did help me focus on the subject though. And I had fun going back in to correct some of the shapes afterwards, and note what the colors were. Great challenge.

If anybody reads this, can you tell me how to post my drawings/sketches. Do I take a photo with my Iphone camera? And then do what to "insert image"? Sorry to be such a luddite. Sylvia (sylsbach@yahoo.com)

It was hard! I made several attempts, it was hard to keep the proportions right.

Too bad to share. This so hard for me. Horrible spatial perception at the best of times. But jolly good fun.

An amusing exercise :-) My squiggles look more like road kill. I certainly need to sharpen these skills: a sense of time - how long it takes to cover distance with the pencil - and spatial perception - where is the start of this thing again?!