Blind Contour Drawings

Finnegan's in university now and is taking a Drawing class, so, of course I'm totally interested in what he's doing!? (Also because all of his schooling, to date, has been homeschooling or online schooling, and... certain... neurodevelopmental challenges... I check in regularly to make sure he's understanding what's required of him) 

So far it's mostly been sketching in class and a portfolio of class work was submitted for midterm. The first part of the first major assignment was a Blind Contour drawing.... or at least that's what the descriptions sounded like... look at the subject... keep drawing implement moving across page as eye follows the contours of the subject... Don't worry about proportion... I feel like the written description said not to look at the work while drawing, but I can't remember now. 

He did this first part of the first assignment and I asked if I could see it... and it looked like an architectural drawing!? I said, "I think you misread that assignment, let's have a look at it again". We reread it, and I said, "that sounds like a blind contour drawing", thinking he'd understand those words, feeling CERTAIN that we'd done blind contour drawings at some point!? He had no idea what I meant and I felt like a failure as a homeschooling art dad... 

I suggested he try again... 

I suggested I could try a quick drawing to show him what I thought it meant. 

so this is what I drew. storage boxes and books in Finnegan's room.

I had a lot of fun doing this. It's been a while since I've done one. 

Maybe not THAT long, now that I think about it, I think I did some with Keiran (and maybe Amanda) back in February...? 

Then I helped him get set up with a better board to draw on in the kitchen (the previous drawing had been done on cardboard, and the texture of the cardboard was apparent)

And this is what he ended up with... which I thought was super cool... 

He took it in to class for a critique and the teachers thought it was pretty cool too! 

Feeling a little less of a failure as Art Dad.