1 How to start a drawing

The first major hurdle is how to start a drawing. For most artists, budding or experienced, gazing at a blank sheet of drawing paper can seem like a terrifying ordeal. How to start a drawing always seems to create a feeling of helplessness and anxiety. Don’t worry there is a simple solution! When I teach drawing I introduce students to a technique known as ‘The Basic Unit’. The basic unit is a single line or a single shape in the scene that is used to locate the scene or subject on our drawing paper. This fixes the composition and allows you to start your drawing with confidence.

2. How to scale to scene to the drawing

The second major problem is that of scaling. Most of the time we need to draw a scene or subject at a different size from the original; this is called scaling the drawing. Many beginners who learn drawing try to draw subjects the same size on the drawing paper, known as same-size scale; in fact the artist will often position the subject at a distance that makes it fit on the paper. This is a drawing practice to really be avoided if you want to draw better. The concept of the basic unit, mentioned above, also solves the problem of scaling the scene to the paper. When you have placed your first line or shape as the basic unit on your paper you have automatically scaled the drawing correctly for the composition you want. When artists simply guess at the size of something to start the drawing they often find that later the drawing is either too small or too big for the paper. This is very common with portraits when you start by drawing the eyes since we tend to draw eyes too big. You can avoid this problem by using the basic unit method.

3. How to draw perspective and proportions

Learning drawing of proportions and perspective is the third major topic that seems to cause many problems. If you want to draw realistically it is crucial that you draw the proportions and the angles of lines in the scene accurately. The traditional method of measuring using a pencil, and then transferring the measures to your drawing paper, really requires some experience for accurate results. This is not easy for beginners to learning drawing or those with only a limited experience. There is a better method which uses specific drawing aids that I teach all of my workshop students. By using a standardised method with the right tools guarantees you will draw with correct proportions and angles and so obtain the same perspective as existed in the scene.

What is blind contour drawing?

In a nutshell, blind contour drawing is a method of calming your overly talkative left brain hemisphere in order to gain access to your right brain hemisphere; your very own artist within! It is the specific skills of perception used by the right brain that we need if we are to draw well. Blind contour drawing is probably one of the most powerful methods we have available to us for making the cognitive shift from left to right brain mode.

Contour drawing is when you draw the outside shape of an object. The shape of a contour is determined by both the object and your viewpoint. Change your view of the object and the contour will usually change too (except for a perfect sphere whose contour looks the same from all angles). Many people mistake contour drawing for blind contour drawing; they are not the same and achieve different results.

Contour drawing is used to obtain the outer shape of an object when drawing; blind contour drawing is used to assist with the cognitive shift from left to right brain. Blind contour drawing also records your pure perception of an object as you draw. Now we know what blind contour drawing is let’s find out how we do it.

How do we do blind contour drawing?

The obvious reason why it is called blind contour drawing is because you do not look at your drawing paper as you draw! Find an interesting object with lots of detail on it: a piece of tree bark, a textured rock, or use the wrinkles of your non-drawing hand. Fix a sheet of paper to your work surface so it cannot move when you draw. Hold your pencil normally and locate it over the paper in a position that gives plenty of room around this start position. You don’t want the pencil to run off the paper when you draw.

Now turn your body and head away from your paper so that you cannot possibly see the paper (not even from the corner of your eye!) Hold you object in your other hand or place it on a convenient surface so that you can closely observe all the fine details it contains. Now choose one point on the outside edge of the object and lower your pencil to the paper. This is your starting point.

Now, simply stare at this starting point on the object (do not look at your paper at any time!) for about 15 seconds. Then, very, very slowly start to move your eyes along the edge of the object AND at the same time and with the same slow pace move you pencil and start to draw. DO NOT LOOK AT THE PAPER AT ALL!

As you observe the edge of the object, try to see every tiny little change in the edge itself and move your pencil exactly the same way. If the edge dips in draw that dip. If the edge bulges out, draw that bulge. Do everything very, very slowly. You are now doing blind contour drawing!

What you will experience

Blind contour drawing throws up some interesting experiences and sensations that nearly everyone notices. The first will probably be a mental conflict as your left brain protests wildly at having to do such a silly task. “How can you hope to draw if you can’t see what you are drawing?” it will repeat to you. “Look at the paper” it will tell you. Ignore these protests and after a couple of minutes you should find yourself starting to relax. This indicates that your left brain has decided to let you get on with it. Now your right brain can actually take over the job and it is at this point you may actually feel the shift in cognition from left brain to right brain.

After a couple of minutes more of slowly observing and slowly moving your pencil to follow the contour of the object, you will really begin to enjoy seeing all of the fine detail that this object has to offer. At this point, you have achieved the goal of blind contour drawing; to help you make the shift into your artistic mode of seeing!

After 20 minutes of drawing, look at your results. The ‘drawing’ may look like a mass of irrelevant squiggles but in fact it is a record of your pure perception of the contour of the object and has a ‘beauty’ all of its own.

If you see examples of so called blind contour drawing, and the drawing looks quite like a real object there is a good chance the person cheated and looked at the paper whilst drawing; so don’t be fooled!