06/2024
Mediums: Black Pen
This was one of four assignments given for our first project in Drawing One.
Contour is essentially an outline, one that would create the form of an item. In this case, it is our own hand. Alongside this, we were asked to only look at the figures we had to draw, barely taking a glimpse at the paper so we could draw a consistent and clean line. This pushed us to grow comfortable in ourselves as we took more time in our observation skills as we drew.
On this page, we have the semi-blind contour, the first part of this series as we are allowed to take a few glances to slowly become comfortable with not looking as much. The blind contour, where we are not allowed to look at our paper at all, only the outlines of our hands. The semi-blind and blind contour with our less dominant hand, using my left hand to draw and my right hand as the figure. Then finally the frenetic line, one where we create expressive lines to shape our hands.
Firstly, I am a digital artist so I have the comfort of having CTRL + Z (undo,) so not being able to, especially with using a pen, made me rather scared. My first attempt was done on a sticky note, the reason being that as much as a sketchbook is used to practice and oftentimes has messy drawings, I felt rather distraught about the idea of my first drawing being very messed up. Doing this first gave me a safety net, allowing me to put my shaky and scared lines down. Afterward, I felt a bit more comfortable with putting it on paper. I was able to train my eyes to focus on solely my hand, growing more confident over time as I created more and more drawings. One of the biggest things I learned in this process was to be more confident in my stroke lines, the less I put pressure on myself, the better my lines looked.
