Draw without looking at your paper
When you draw without looking at your paper, it's called blind contour drawing. This is a drawing exercise where an artist draws the contour of a subject, by drawing the lines of the subject, without looking at the paper. The French word contour means, “outline.”
This is an exercise to help you become better at observing what you draw as well as improve your hand-eye coordination. Do not worry about what your drawing looks like, this is practice and the drawings look silly!
Remember:
•Take your time, go very slow
•Keep pencil and eye in unison - trace your object with your eye and slowly move your pencil
•Try not to lift up the pencil
•Eyes on the subject, don’t look away
•The process is more important
than end drawing
What you'll need:
Paper, pencil, and paper plate
Create a blind contour drawing. You can draw your nondominant hand, a potted plant, a stack of books - anything that has a lot of lines and will stay still is a great subject matter for this. If you have a paper plate, poke a hole through it and use it as a shield to prevent yourself from looking at your paper (see photo below).
This is an exercise to get better at drawing, practice and have fun with it! No stress
How to trace your eye & pencil
Go slow, watch an example
