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Don't Look - Just Draw!

Focus on sharpening your observation skills while creating a blind contour drawing.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    Talk to students about the technique of blind contour drawing, where your eyes focus on an object and never look at the paper while you draw it. This exercise has many benefits. It enhances observation skills, it improves hand-eye coordination, it leads to a greater acceptance of imperfection, it keeps you focused and rooted in the moment, it can ease inhibitions, and many others.

  • Step 2

    Engage students in this exercise by setting up a few objects as a still life. Have students look at the display and use a fine line marker to recreate it on paper without ever looking at what they're drawing. Encourage them to try not to lift the marker from the paper, which will help maintain control and connection.

  • Step 3

    Ask students to embellish their sketch by adding color to it using colored pencils. They can use either realistic or imaginative color combinations.

  • Step 4

    When they're done ask them to discuss the process. Did they feel a greater connection to the objects? Did their minds wander or were their thoughts focused on observation? Did they feel a sense of freedom in not having to create a realistic representation? Ask them how this lesson can apply to how they view situations in life.

Standards

ARTS: Explore and invent art-making techniques and approaches.

SEL: Self-Management: Manage one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations.

Adaptations

Free writing is the technique of writing whatever comes to mind without stopping or thinking about grammar, spelling, or rhetoric. Have students take five minutes or so to engage in free writing, then reflect on how the process affected them.

"Contour" is French for "outline" and the contour drawing technique emphasizes the outline of an object rather than the details. Have students explore artists who have used this technique, such as Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci.