A lot of instructional drawing videos encourage students to use this method when learning how to draw. But from what I can tell, most artists don't draw like this. That is, they don't keep their eyes on the subject without ever looking at their drawing. Moreover, the instructors even acknowledge that the drawing isn't going to look very good when using this method. So, given that, what's the point of this method? I mean, what are you suppose to learn from it?
The idea of contour drawing is to train your arm, not your hand, to capture the ESSENCE – the underlying structure – of your subject with a single line. The more you practice it, without looking at what you are drawing, the more your eye becomes connected to your hand – just like typing without looking at the keyboard. It strengthens two things: hand-eye coordination and freedom from drawing habits that lock you into a certain position when drawing or painting.
The largest effect of this exercise is to free your hand from the habits you form in normal drawing. It’s like doing pull-ups to strengthen your muscles for more accurate drumming.
We almost always draw with our hand resting on the paper, using the wrist as a pivot. All the drawing comes from the wrist. In contour drawing – if you’re doing it correctly – no part of the hand rests on the paper, only the pencil/pen, and your entire ARM is the drawing force. In this way, it trains your arm to follow the contours of the subject, not the hand, exercising you to the fullest extent.
Consider it an exercise, even if you don’t “get it,” it will help. When you begin to paint, you won’t be able to rest your hand in wet paint. Only the brush will touch the canvas.
Blind contour drawing is to practice hand eye movement which is very useful when drawing from observation. Contour drawing is used in order to practice on seeing and using negative space. Its meant to focus more on the negative “objects” than on the object being drawn.
Contour drawing is crucially important. It will teach your hand to follow what your eye sees. Study your subject carefully and imagine that your eye is slowly pulling the pencil over what you see. The reason you do not look at the paper when beginning this process, is so that you learn what it feels like to let your eye dictate what your hand does. Looking back and forth at the paper can interrupt that feeling.
Of course, you soon will be looking back and forth from your subject to your drawing paper. Initially though, allow yourself to get the feeling of having your pencil follow your eye…. In this initial stage, you will not be looking at your paper because it does not matter what the drawing looks like. That comes later.
Once you learn to let your hand follow you eye, you will be amazed at the results in your drawings. Each of us sees things in our individual way. Therefore, learning to draw what you see (that is, contour drawing), you will develop your own individual style.
Once you learn to draw what you see, your style can not help but be artistically strong. For more information and examples of contour drawings, see http://www.learn-to-draw-expressively.com/linedrawing.html