Blind Contour Line Drawing Exercise

Paper

A fine-tip pen or marker — not a pencil, because the rule is no erasing

Set your paper on the table and uncap a fine-tip pen or marker.

Choose your subject. Your own non-drawing hand held in an interesting pose is the classic choice. A shoe, a plant, or a crumpled paper bag also work well.

Place the tip of the pen on the paper. Now look only at the subject. Do not look at the paper.

Slowly trace the outline of the subject with your eyes. As your eyes move along the contour of the subject, let your hand mirror that movement on the paper. Move very slowly.

Do not lift the pen. Keep the line continuous from start to finish. If you need to move to a different part, draw a line connecting there.

When you feel you have traced the entire outline, look at your paper. The drawing will look distorted, exaggerated, and wonderfully strange. That is exactly right.

Do three to five drawings with different subjects. Speed up slightly with each one.

Compare your drawings. You will notice they become more proportionate with each attempt, even though they still look unusual.

The urge to peek at the paper is overwhelming at first. Resist it. The whole exercise is about training the eye-to-hand connection.

Blind contour drawings are meant to look odd. This is not about making a pretty picture — it is about learning to see.

Use pen, not pencil. The inability to erase forces commitment to every line. There are no mistakes, only unexpected lines.

This exercise is prescribed in every drawing fundamentals course in the world. It was popularized by art educator Kimon Nicolaides in the 1940s and remains essential.

After a few blind contours, try a modified version where you can glance at the paper 10 percent of the time. The improvement in accuracy is dramatic.