Weird Stuff..Pure Contour Drawing

So our first challenge this week was to get our heads round drawing with our eyes and transferring the image of their journey into the diary without looking at it.
Ummm! A bit of a challenge and therefore rather intimidating at first but all 5 of my Tuesday students were totally focused to achieve the aim and managed brilliantly doing edges and contours of their hand.
It is really hard to focus away from the page and 'take your eyes for a walk'.

This is all part of 'pure contour drawing'. It begins the process of training the brain to syncronise the movement of the hand in time with the journey taken by the eyes across the edges and contours of the object. It helps to really examine the subject that you are going to draw and see the series of related edges and 2D contours rather than a scarey 3D object.
Well done guys!
We later moved on to 'modified contour drawing'. Moving towards developing their skills to 90% observation 10% checking the drawing for accuracy. It was challenging for everyone but they rose to it.
 Here are some shots of Thursday's class in the middle of their modified contour activity and the subjects they were drawing.

 

 Looking forward to seeing everyone's homework next week and publishing extracts from each diary in the next blog post.

But I can't Draw!

Both groups have now had their first session. The two groups come on different days but follow the same structure and both admitted to being very nervous. When I started with my introduction 'Anyone Can Draw' I could see that they wished it were true but maybe not too convinced right now.

Their first task was to draw something from memory and BINGO panic spread across each face.
However this was all about recording where they are right now so they can look back as they develop. The rest of the day found them settling in and taking on some challenging excercises.

It is amazing how little confidence adults have in their abilities but each of them really did feel they had achieved something more by the end of the day.

Quite frankly after a gruelling 5 hours working in their drawing diaries I am absolutely delighted at how much skill they already have. Just needing unleashing and am so looking forward to working with them over the next few weeks.

So do your homework guys and see you next week!

So here are a couple of shots from my Thursday class hard at it.

Next week images from lesson 2. 

The Adventure Begins

In a week's time 8 adult students will be starting their first ever drawing diary, working with me in our barn/studio here in Portugal over the next 12 weeks. Most of them think they can't draw and I am determined to prove them wrong. Follow their adventure into drawing here and enjoy their growth, progress and achievement.