Blind Contour Drawing
Drawing 1 students were given a lesson on contour line drawing. This type of drawing focuses on using solely the right side of the brain to create an image. Contour drawing forces students to train their hands to do what their eyes and mind require them to based on what is observed. One week was spent creating drawings by following their edges of their subjects with their eyes and translating that to the page.
Over time the students became much more adept at this type of drawing and we moved on to drawings of the human figure. For each class a student volunteered as the model and the rest of the class drew them using blind contour (never looking at your paper), and simple contour drawings. At the beginning of week 2 the students brought out all of their drawings and chose their best image to use as their final. The students had to outline their final lines with sharpie markers and color their background with either warm or cool colors, and the figure with the opposing colors.
Over time the students became much more adept at this type of drawing and we moved on to drawings of the human figure. For each class a student volunteered as the model and the rest of the class drew them using blind contour (never looking at your paper), and simple contour drawings. At the beginning of week 2 the students brought out all of their drawings and chose their best image to use as their final. The students had to outline their final lines with sharpie markers and color their background with either warm or cool colors, and the figure with the opposing colors.