Contour Drawing

This is a fun way to loosen up the class.  Contour drawing is a great project to start with early in the school year.  The students will not be embarrassed or discouraged by another student being better than they are, because all of the drawings will look very different.  What you will need is large paper, markers (mistakes will be made, and they should not be erased), and a few things to sit on the tables for still life drawings.

The students should first draw their hand.  Their hand can be posed in any way that they choose, but they need to keep their hand away from their paper so that they can't see what their drawing hand is doing, this is called Blind Contour Drawing.  Also, they can't lift their marker from the paper at any time while drawing and they cannot look at the paper at any time while drawing.  They will need to draw the outline of their hand and also include small details such as wrinkles on the knuckles and palm.

Another way of doing contour drawing is called Modified Contour Drawing.  This is done in the same way as Blind Contour but the students will be allowed to look at their paper ONLY to lift and place their marker in a new position.  They still cannot look at the paper while drawing and their drawing subject should still be away from the paper so that they can't see what their drawing hand is doing.

Place a few random objects on the tables for still life subjects.  They can be anything from shoes to an old typewriter.  The objects should be something that is in the round, nothing like a book, but a stack of books could work if they are stacked staggeringly.  Once they have drawn their hands a few times they should move on to the still life objects.  Each student should have their own view of the objects so that each drawing is different.

Here are a few examples:

Mixture of Blind and Modified

Mixture of Blind and Modified

Modified

Modified

Modified

Modified

Modified