People of the Blind Line
Friday, December 30, 2011 at 05:05PM 
When you're doing blind contour line drawing, you select a subject, pick up your drawing implement--a pencil, say--and without looking at the paper or lifting your pencil off the page, draw what you see. As your eyes move over your subject, your pencil moves over the page. Last summer, my son learned this technique at art camp, so we tried it at home. He produced the two figures at left. Mine is on the right.
The process is like walking on a balance beam or carrying a tray of full glasses: If you look down, you might lose your balance, so you keep your eyes forward and steady. You feel kind of giddy as you approach the drawing's end, finishing off whatever you need to finish off--be it a collar or a fringe of leaves. The result may please you. If not, it may entertain you. Barring that, you can toss it. It's just an exercise, after all.
I know a lot of writers who rely on detailed outlines, hewing to carefully plotted points as they make their way from chapter to chapter. But I hope that once in a while, they try writing by the blind line--venturing forth into the blank page, charting observations as they go. The blind line can lead you to unexpected places. It's kind of like the Yellow Brick Road, except the wizard at the end is you.
Here's to 2012 and its discoveries.
Reader Comments (1)
Blind contour drawing is wonderful because when we are done, we can see how we see, not what we see. It's always amazing. Congratulations to you both for trying it out!