Oddly enough, slowing down is the fastest way to improve your art. This exercise forces us to slow down, take our time and digest what we see leisurely. In the modern world, most of us are so used to getting things instantly that it is only natural to expect the same from our artistic growth. Although you use your eyes, you do not close up the other senses - rather, the reverse, because all the senses have a part in the sort of observation, you are to make." - The Natural Way To Draw. The sort of 'seeing' I mean is an observation that utilises as many of the five senses as can reach through the eye simultaneously. "Learning to draw is really a matter of learning to see - to see correctly - and that means a good deal more than merely looking with the eye. Our brains can simplify what we perceive, making it difficult to draw. With this exercise, we try to empathise and merge with whatever we see rather than retreat to our mental image of it. The goal of blind contour drawing is to really 'see' whatever you are drawing. So here's why I encourage you to try blind contour drawing: A pure state of drawing without the logical side telling us what it should be. It forces us to examine the world as it is without the input from our left brain. Nicolaides believes that we see not just with our eyes but with all our senses.īlind contour drawing is a form of meditation and artistic practice. This technique trains our minds to honour the chaos of the input of our senses. In his book, one of the most popular exercises for drawing is the blind contour drawing method. So I downloaded a copy of the Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicholides to break free of my self-imposed shackles. I was too focused on the 'aesthetics and meaning', which crippled my ability to create anything, leading to years of art block. I longed for the days when I could put a pencil on paper and just draw, when my art was organic and intuitive. The problem was that as a young adult, I struggled to let go of my need to control the outcome of my drawings. So I tried blind contour drawing to help me find a new rhythm. Many years ago, I was in a creative rut and needed some help loosening up and trying something new.
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