Drawing Blind

This is the second exercise on the site that I found, teaching complete beginners how to draw, and it once again focuses on getting your hand to co-operate with your eye. It's called the Blind Contour Exercise.

The idea behind it, similar to the wire exercise from my Feeling Wired post, is to keep your pencil on the paper without lifting it off and follow the outline of what you're looking at (In this case, I chose my hand). You are encouraged - nay - ordered to avoid look at the paper while you're drawing, as you are meant to be letting your mind capture the outline of your chosen subject in all its detail.

It's harder than it sounds. And it sounds hard. When you can't draw while looking directly at the paper, looking in the other direction seems completely crazy, and it probably is, but I did it anyway.

My hand. My subject. My lover - just kidding...

My blind contour result. Or maybe E.T's return.

Sure, it doesn't seem like I'm learning much from this exercise, apart from how to make my own hand seem horrifying, but it must be doing something. If nothing else, it definitely got me thinking about the little details that make up something as simple as a realistic hand, such as wrinkles on the palm. 

Wrinkles. That's something, right?