The primary goal of blind contour drawing is to focus your attention on what you’re actually seeing in front of you, rather than what you think you’re seeing. Your final drawing is usually not very realistic and can look a little messy, but that’s exactly how it’s meant to be! What’s the Purpose of This Technique? It’s a great technique for beginner artists to use when focusing on observational skills, and it builds an excellent foundation for more complex artistic adventures later on. The blind contour line drawing technique was first used in the 1920s and 1930s, brought to mass attention in the art world in Kimon Nicolaïdes 1941 book, The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study. The final piece is made up of one continuous line as the pencil or pen stays on the paper so that the artist doesn’t lose where they are or need to look down. When thinking about a blind contour drawing definition, it’s most commonly described as a technique where the artist continually looks at their subject while completing the drawing and is “blind” to their work before it’s completed. Blind contour drawings are made from one continuous line and completed without looking at your paper. The word itself comes from the French contour, which means outline or shape, and is used to describe the lines that make up the outside edge of a drawing. You may be familiar with what a contour is already, but if not then that’s a good place to start. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll understand the blind contour drawing definition, why this differs from other types of contour line drawings, and how you can start working on your own blind contour line art pieces straight away. While some of this is natural, it’s definitely possible to level-up your observational skills and improve your artwork as a result.īlind contour drawing is one exercise that you can use to see all of the details and really look at your subject rather than drawing from memory. The greatest artists are often the best observers, noticing shapes and lines in ways that others don’t.

Contour lines in art hands