I've done blind contour drawing a few times during this project as it helps loosen me up. Lately I've been looking at ways that my life sketches can help to inform my studio work and I got thinking, 'could my blind contour drawings help me to do the same? I had a reference photo to hand this time but made the conscious decision NOT to rely on it so much. I didn't want to get sucked back into the detail I'm so used to so just used it for proportions purposes. Today I used a ball point pen to draw with.

When you do blind contour drawing it's best to take your time and go really slow, letting your eyes pick up all the detail they're seeing. I probably went a little too fast with this one and could've been a little more patient. It's so interesting though when you finally look at what you've done because although it doesn't look amazing, you can actually make sense of what it's meant to be. You are still able to see that this here is a horse walking.

I wanted to take it a step further and see if I could develop the drawing into a more finished piece using mixed media. I began by building upon the structure that was already there (see photo below), using charcoal pencil to overdraw and white acrylic paint to correct any anatomical/proportion mistakes and unwanted lines. I then began to throw grey markers, willow charcoal and more ball point pen into the mix as well as white pastel. The constant adding and subtracting of things I want to leave in and don't want in, helps build the layers of the drawing and brings life and interest to the work. 

I am very aware that the measurements of the horse here aren't great but I feel that the process overrides that at this stage. I really enjoyed the exercise and would love to try it again but perhaps next time leaving more of the previous blind contour drawing showing rather than obliterating it with the white acrylic. I'm interested in the idea of the layers being the history of the drawing and that each bit of history/layer is just as important and as interesting as the next.