blind contour

45 minute blind contour drawing; 14" x 11"

Here's one of my longer blind contour drawings (done without looking at the page.)  I can't seem to last the full recommended hour but I got closer here.  This is of my fireplace with the little vents skewing first up and then down, the objects on the mantle piece juxtaposed and the texture of the brick popping up here and there.  There's a bellows in the lower right with brads, folded leather and two handles for pumping.  My fireplace sits at a 45 degree angle in the room and you can see the ceiling structure responding to this configuration as it angles off to the left above.

This is part of the drawing sequence I've been following in Nicolaide's book.  He aims first to separate all of the elements of drawing and then bring them back together again at the end.  So right now, the emphasis is on the tactile.  While drawing blindly, you rely on your sense of touch to find the edges of things.  Not literally of course, but in the most real sense you can conjure until you're convinced, in your mind, that your pencil tip is caressing the seen borders.  Like meditation, I kept losing that train of thought and continually had to bring myself back to feeling with my pencil tip.  I think that's what it's all about though - returning - over and over again.