The Gauntlet, taken up

Okay, you’re right: this is NOT one of my photos or fractals. This is a line drawing that I wish I could credit to its rightful owner; please let me know if you know of the source? Thank you,

The reason for the switch in art today is that, as a student in John Kramar’s LVSonline introductory course on techniques for Remote Perception, the drawing was given as a subject with which to practice ‘blind drawing’. Blind drawing simply means that all of your attention is kept on the subject while, without looking at your paper, you draw its contours. For the exercise, the drawing was also turned upside down, so that one is truly just copying the shape and flow of the lines; a technique taught by Betty Edwards in her ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’ courses and book.

Karol Grace posted about blind drawing in her Three Dog Studio post: Making Art with your Eyes Closed, just as the remote viewing class was introduced to it. In both uses, it is a warm-up for getting the figurative muscles of your art brain flexible and engaged. The results of blind contour drawing can be, um, disappointing and humbling, and , in friendly discussion, hilarious. I left a comment on the blog, saying something to the effect that her linework looked good even if the subject *was* a little (cue the friendly discussion *smile*) ‘randomized’ and she tossed down a grinning gauntlet, challenging me to nerve up and post my own stab at blind drawing; here we go-talk about ‘warts and all’ blog entries!

I attempted my first copy of the subject above, on the honor system, and found that I could not be trusted. Failed miserably; caught myself several times sneaking a peek at the drawing hand to try to place it for the next line. Predictably, the drawing was reasonably close to the original above. But, oh, the guilt! *grin*. I didn’t include that first drawing here, as the second of the truly blind attempts was made on the same paper and overlay it; very hard to tell which part was the peeked-at version and which was the second blind try in the resultant mess. To ensure that I couldn’t look at my drawing hand again, I went off and found a milk-jug box, the sort that holds two one-gallon plastic jugs of milk. It was just the right size to lie on its side on the desk, with room for a stack of paper and for pen maneuvering, inside. With my hand out of sight in the box, I tried it for the first time without being able to look. Horrible. Shudder-inducing. Really dreadful; you can find her right eye and eyelid floating in space next to the main..er…collision of lines. More Practice!

The third blind attempt a wasn’t a whole lot better. I have no recollection of drawing her nose three times, lol.

The final try has some recognizable copies of lines from the original, even if the misplaced right and left contours make it as much like the original face as a mask run over by an 18-wheeler. It is progress, however halting.

For me, blind drawing, in spite of the name, is a great way to practice seeing, seeing what is really in front of me, which I think is of great importance to how I make choices when I’m working with the camera. One of my most common errors is looking at, but not *seeing* the truth of the scene in the viewfinder. How is the light *really* distributed, how is the color from the thing closest to my center of interest altering the picture I think I’m taking, are my technical decisions with the camera and lens really setting the center of interest off from the colors and forms that might distract the eye. Having practice at seeing helps assure I don’t just find new ways to depict the proverbial lamppost growing-out-of-a-subject’s-head image.

I’m glad to have been re-introduced to this form of art exercise, it’s also a neat way to subtly shift my state of mind into something more focused and quieter. Not smarter, obviously, otherwise I’d’ve burned the evidence!

Well, that’s it, that’s my blind drawing come-uppance, lol. Let the friendly discussion begin!

Pssssst….on Karol’s Three Dog Studio blog there is also a very cool idea for making a sketching journal that is much less unnerving than a daily confrontation with a plain, blank page; check it out!

cheers,

pete