Blind Contour Drawing
with Marc Isaacs
Blind contour drawing is the best friend to an artist and it often comes before contour drawing, but not necessarily. It should be repeated daily even by the experienced hand as it is great practice.
If you have been introduced to contour drawing previously then you have half an understanding, now for the other half…
You may not look at the paper on which you draw and you may draw over and over on the same paper with overlapping being perfectly ok.
The goal is an exercise, not a finished image. The pencil is your barbell. The only reason to keep the practice papers is to observe progress. The jump can be surprising.
Here we go:
- We need an objector model, a pencil and paper and a large paper plate. Poke a hole in the paper plate center and slide the pencil through until it reaches almost to the top of the pencil, near the eraser area. Now the pencil has a hat.
- Look at one side of the object to start, we can see the whole object later. Place the tip of the pencil on the paper. Be sure you cannot see the surface where the mark-making takes place.
- Imagine your eye and the point of the pencil to be in the same spot. Trace the edge of the model as if by an imaginary laser pointer without lifting the pencil.
It may help if you verbally describe each bit as you go. Saying things like I move the tip downward to a step and I am moving my pencil over it away from the main body, down a little, and back in towards the body, continuing downward … the more descriptive the better as it will slow you down to training speed.
Eventually, you will go silent altogether. The other key point is to remember that although you are some distance away from the object you will guide the pencil as if actually touching it. A fun challenge is to skip the paper plate and honor yourself by not looking at the paper. Toss away the eraser as you won’t need it at all.
With practice, the eye-hand coordination will grow beyond expectation.
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About Marc Isaacs:
Marc Isaacs is an award-winning Long Island artist and teacher, with a degree in Art Education and a Masters in Fine Arts. His work is in collections in the US, Taiwan and Japan and periodically in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City as well as Huntington’s Heckscher Museum. Whether teaching drawing, clay or paint in two dimensions or three, he has a unique teaching philosophy which he calls “solving art.” Students are taught to create links between the dimensions and develop art skills which they can carry across education. He teaches students to work with conventional materials as well as tools and found objects in order to enhance their tactile and environmental awareness. He currently teaches for the Art Guild, YMCA, Friends Academy, and the North Shore school district.
Rob Silverman’s innovative techniques have been featured in American Artist Workshop Magazine and The Art of the Portrait, the official publication of the Portrait Society of America. His work has appeared at Crosby Street Gallery and Spring Studio Gallery in Soho, the Art League of Long Island, Edward Hopper House, The Art Guild of Port Washington, The National Art League, the Lockwood-Mathews Museum, as well as the National Arts Club and Salmagundi Club. View his work at silvermanportraits.com. 
