Blind Contour Portraits

Blind Contour Drawing is a fun exercise where the artist draws the outline of their subject without ever looking at the paper! It can be a very fun way to warm up for a drawing session, and it can also make for a terrific drawing game at parties! In fact, all of the portraits on this page were started by friends of mine at different gatherings. We drew each other for a few minutes using the blind contour drawing technique, then laughed uproariously at the results. But the real fun for me was when I took these contour drawings and completed them by adding paint and ink details and washes. Wonderful, weird and wacky, these portraits fill me with delight.