DRAWING CHALLENGE: BLIND CONTOURS

INTRO

The break from daily posts has helped me realize that I was doing very safe art.

I didn’t have the time to be creative about my creativity. Sorry to get all meta on you, but the last grad class I took was all about learning and development.

One of the biggest takeaways was getting good at something will create a craving for greater and greater challenges.

This phenomena presents itself in a visual artist when they start to list assumptions and challenge one assumption.

If I draw and illustrate well, then I try drawing with only one eye open. After a while, I follow that experiment with drawing while both eyes are closed.

It isn’t anything that should be judged per se, but it brings about a great question.

Do you need to see to draw?

Well, of course you do! But do you really? Are there visual artists that are blind? How do blind art lovers consume visual art?

All these questions come about by challenging one assumption.

Not because scribbling with my eyes closed will help turn me into a Steemit whale (#lifegoals), but the hidden and precious questions that come up truly stimulate development.

Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

For the rest of this post I will conduct partially blinded visual experiments where I draw an eye with one eye closed. Then try with both eyes closed.

This brings me to a place I have never been, but know others have experienced.

There are people who have had eye surgery in one eye and now have an artificial eye.

There are also people who have been blind for weeks due to an eye surgery.

BLIND ART

PROCESS

As you could see, I tried drawing with both eyes open, and with one eye opened. I finished everything by trying to draw with both eyes closed.

The really pain in the ass part about this exercise is that when I drew with my eyes open I felt really calm about the process. When my eyes were closed, I was self conscious. The minute I lifted my pencil I was lost and I really was discouraged to continue after I lifted my pencil up again.

I recommend you try this and post your thoughts and results. Use the tag eyescloseddrawingchallenge so we can connect our results together.