Anybody can learn to draw, the key is to learn to SEE what you see. You must be able see what your eyes are really looking at and not what your mind is telling you your eyes are looking at. Kind of confused? Don't be, it is really easy to understand.
Our minds have stored millions of images into memory. When we look at "something" our minds try to identify that "something" as quick as possible by resorting to a stored image. Although that stored image may be ok, for instance, if you are driving and see a on coming car and need to identify the danger, but a stored image of a car is not ok when you are trying to draw a specific car. Another good example is the human eye. If I ask you to draw an eye, you would quickly draw a football shape with a circle in the middle. This is the minds stored image of an eye. The same drawing would be the result if I asked you to draw a picture of your own eye by looking in a mirror. You will draw the same image although your eye looks nothing like a football with a circle in the middle. Your mind by nature wants to take the quickest route and get on to the next order of business. So the trick is to get your mind thinking correctly and to do this there is some training required. Blind Contour Drawing is a great trainer.
Blind contour drawings are done by drawing an object without ever looking at the paper. The final drawing is not important. The most important thing is to do the exercise slowly, carefully observing the object and DO NOT look at your paper. Any object you choose to draw will work. I like to draw my hand. It is always available and the possibilities are endless depending on how your hand is positioned.
1.Place your hand in a comfortable position and put your pencil on your paper.
2.Pick a starting point with your eyes. Near the wrist at the bottom works well.
3.With your eyes, start tracing/following the outline of your hand very slowlywhile your drawing hand is tracing / following on the paper. The position of your eyes on your hand should be the exact position of your pencil on the paper. DO NOT LOOK! Just follow the line of your wrist very slowly without taking your eyes off your hand or your pencil from the paper. The result should be a continuous line drawn without lifting the pencil. The more detail you can capture the better.
4.Once you are done take a look. (Remember this is an exercise for training your mind, not a finished artwork)
