Contour Drawing (DRSB)

[balthane]

So... I'm going through self-teaching to learn drawing and animation. On the drawing side of things I'm going through Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  So far I have seen improvement, but I've discovered a true dislike for contour drawing. I was wondering if anyone else has had a tough time with contour drawing.  I'm still doing it, but I find it difficult to make myself do it, which means my progress has gotten slower. Mostly, because I keep having to do the exercises over and over again. The reason is because usually around 13 minutes of contour drawing I stop, and I need to do at least 20 minutes of it. I finally got down to 30 and a little under 30, but the last pure contour drawing was for an hour. I did it for 20 minutes and then stopped.

Anyone ever had problems with contour drawing and any advice to get over this hump? So far I just keep doing it and I don't move on to the next section until I've completed it.

[Pieter]

You mean blind contours?

[balthane]

Yes. Though in DSRB, Edwards calls it Pure Contour.

[Pieter]

The most important part of it is certainly enjoyment. If you're tired of doing those pure contours then just do another exercise, don't follow a book onto the letter, just enjoy the process and take what you can out of it. For what it's worth I never did much blind contours, cause they started to bore me also, 'regular' lifedrawing is still excercise. In short, don't sweat it, just enjoy something else.

[balthane]

Thank you! I can be a bit rigid when following exercises. I'll take your advice and move on to the next exercise and come back to blind contours later. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I appreciate it.