Welcome back!
I hope you are all transitioning well into the cooler weather. I actually just reorganized my closet yesterday and took out my heavier outerwear. It seems like we are well into the fall season now.
This semester, we made a slight change to our curriculum. Our students now receive their own curriculum book. Our instructor and Director developed a book in which students and parents can read the lesson plans and work on their exercises directly in the book. This way, we are all able to see their work in progress. A lot of the time, we tend to look at just the end result of the projects, but there are actually many steps the students go through before creating their projects.
LINE: Blind Contour Drawing & Mystery Box
A blind contour drawing contains lines that are drawn without ever looking at the piece of paper. This forces you to study a scene closely, observing every shape and edge with your eyes, as your hand mimics these on paper. The aim is not to produce a realistic artwork, but rather to strengthen the connection between eyes, hand and brain: a reminder that, when drawing, you must first learn to see.
Blind contour drawing exercise
We introduced this concept to our little artists with a fun activity. We hid objects inside a box and had our students reach inside. The students then used their sense of touch to draw and express the shape as well as texture.
An activity like this is a great way for the students to really absorb a new concept without even knowing it! Although they might not go home remembering the exact terminology, they were able to fully understand the concept as well as develop a very important foundation skill.
We will be able to apply this skill into our next lesson using a different type of medium, so stay tuned for more!