Imagine you are in the woods following an animal trail. You don’t know where it will lead; you just look for markers, and keep going. But you find yourself noticing more and more. You get to know those woods intimately.
Or imagine you are a blind person exploring the face of a loved one. Your hand moves delicately over nose, eyes, lips– exploring, questioning.
Or you are drawing a flower, or a tree. Your eye wanders all around the petals, the branches. And your pencil moves over the paper.
This is contour drawing. It’s not about making a “successful” drawing. It’s about resting your attention on this thing right in front of you, patiently, quietly. It can be a kind of meditation practice, a means of contemplation. You begin to notice things you never noticed before. You see that flower as if for the first time. The world becomes new again. And, quite often, wonderful, surprising, drawings happen along the way.
“Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world.”
–Frederick Franck