Blind Contour Drawings with Kids

Blind contour drawings are the most fun you can have drawing with another person. Have you ever tried them? The rule is that you can’t look down at your paper and you can’t lift your pen. This makes for the most hysterical – and quite honestly the most exquisite – abstract portraits!

So I got this idea from my friend Jeanette‘s book called Tangle Art & Drawing Games for Kids. If you have a child who loves to draw then they will absolutely LOVE this book!!! Here’s what the publisher writes:

Tangle Art and Drawing Games for Kids is perfect for families who want to sneak a little more creativity into their lives and have fun doing it. It’s about exploring, experimenting, and getting lost in creativity. It’s not focused on goals, but on enjoying the process.

Professional artist Jeanette Nyberg brings to life 46 drawing games that offer playful, easy ways to get a pen moving across a page, help keep the mind focused, and provide hours of guided entertainment. Move through the book at your own pace. Start with basic drawing games, followed by a section of activities that can be done with friends, then work with some mixed-media activities, and end with awesome tangle art games. Each activity includes ideas for how to “Make it Silly,” and ways to vary the themes so you can play the games over and over.

This book – plus some key art supplies – would make an awesome gift. It’s December right now so I’m thinking about the holidays, but really this gift is perfect for birthdays all year round. We took this exact packet on our trip to South Carolina last summer and it kept my kids (ages 10, 14, and 17) laughing and drawing the whole vacation.

Supplies for Tangle Art gift package:

~ Tangle Art & Drawing Games for Kids

~ Watercolor paper 9 x 12 (cut in half)

~ Black sharpie

~ Painter’s tape

~ Watercolors by OOLY

~ Fluorescent tempera cakes

With the fluorescent paints it’s a $50 gift (those paints are expensive, but they go on sale often). Without them it’s a $30 gift. Or you can replace the paints with markers (I love these dual tip ones), also a key art supply that is used in this book. Either way, this is a killer gift for a creative child between the ages of 6-14. If you give this gift, you will forever be known as the best gift-giver ever!!

There are so many good drawing prompts in this book. Some of my favorites are upside down drawings, synchronized drawings, and gravity drawings. Don’t those sound so fun?

Ok, so here we are in Kiawah, South Carolina, last summer for the hottest vacation we have ever had. Don’t go to Kiawah in August, people. The temp was in the 100s and the ocean felt like a hot bath. We kept coming inside to cool down . We also had a little cockroach problem (another reason not to go south in August) so between the heat and the roaches, I’m glad I brought down Jeanette’s book to keep us distracted!

I debated whether to post these photos since they are not really blog worthy. My daughter took them while my son was doing his blind contour drawing of me. But I love his concentration and then pure joy in seeing what he drew!

We took our drawings one step further and painted in the shapes. I first taped the edges down to magazines just to frame the final pieces with a white border. I love this look as it raises the artwork up a notch and really makes it stand out.

These pieces are gallery-worthy, don’t you think? Thank you, Jeanette, for writing such an incredibly inspiring + thoughtful + funny book! It’s one of our faves.

Also, check out artist Allison Kunath and her blind contour drawings which she calls “seeing without looking” intuitive portraits. They are quite beautiful.

XO, Bar

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Did you like this post? Here are more drawing prompt ideas for kids: