Contours of the Head
The Noguchi Museum
Queens, NY
7.10.11
An outline is a contour line that moves along the visible outer edge of a form.
An outline is one of many contour lines that move across and around form.
Turn a little to the right or left,
up or down,
and a given outline disappears into the interior of the form,
only to be replaced by another.
Blind contour drawing is meant to free you up
in order to explore movement over the contours of a form.
Blind contour drawing allows you to forget about your drawing’s point-of-view,
to focus more closely on the thing you’re looking at
as an object in the round. This can become habit-forming.
When blind contour drawing becomes habitual, we can call upon our sense of touch to help make drawing strange again, awakening our interest in what we’re drawing.
Using one hand to feel the contours of our own heads, let’s draw with our other hand. As hand feels head, and head feels hand, our other, drawing hand translates these sensations of mass, shape and surface to the page.
Two 2 hour sessions. Pencil, razor blades, vellum.