Extended Blind Contour Drawing

I created three scenes, each with a very different subject matter, and differing styles of mark making, although the medium remained the same. In the first piece, A Kiwi Sun I trapped the blind self portrait behind a maze of dark lines, leaving my 'eyes' pointing to the birds, flying free in a fantasy desert. This piece suggests my desire to escape from firm structure. The second piece, Whale Watch, is inspired by the way that waves push and pull small objects and seaweed along the bottom in shallow water. I thought of how crabs might see someone diving under the water, and as one of my shapes looked rather whale-like I decided that it fit the piece. The last piece, Fern, is about sharp contrast between messy blind contour drawing and minute detail in the shadows on the fern. The person that was the subject of the contour drawing, my friend Oliver, was unfortunately later covered by an ill-placed hand contour, but I think it looks better that way in the end.

I broke out my micron pens for this assignment, all of various widths as well as black prismacolor chisel tip marker. I used an .05, .03 and an .005 black micron as well as the black marker in the first piece. In the second piece I used blue and blue-black .05 width microns, but tried to create varying width marks using the edge of the tip—which while awful for the pen, saves me the time of having to go out to buy thinner ones. In the third piece, Fern, I used the .05, .03, and .005 black microns again. The original blind contours were done with a black Sharpie fineliner pen.

These pieces are the result of doodling—especially A Kiwi Sun, I simply drew what I wanted to, without an initial sketch, an exercise to allow me to be much more free with the marks I am making. I was trying to have fun, so I drew what I like to draw: the ocean, the desert and nature.