05. Extended Blind Contour Figure Drawing

Artist Statement

For this piece, we were tasked with choosing an animal figurine and creating a blind contour with it. The one that chose to be a monkey, blind contour is where you focus solely on the figure that is presented before you; not looking down at your piece of paper while your drawing, you're just supposed to draw the features (or outline) that stand out the most to you. Drawing finer details isn't recommended.

For my monkey contour, I used black ink for the basic outline of the monkey's body, before going back in with watercolor and color pencils to add some more color instead of just keeping it black and white. Layering the watercolor first, this became my base color before I went back in with a color pencil to add some more texture.

Originally this project was a set of two. My other subject originally a female monkey holding her baby, though I was happy with my base line countor of the figure, the piece didnt pass my critqueing processes as I felt I was a bit too brutish when coloring it.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how this piece came out. Though I did have some struggles, mainly revolving around the fact that this is the first time I'd used watercolor since last year, I think it all came together in the end. If I were to revisit this piece in the future though, I would probably go back in with my ink pen and add some more details to the foreground and background. The stark black outline of the monkey itself does pop out a light more then I think it should, so I think adding some ink details in the back will pull it all together.