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THE EFFECT OF BLIND CONTOUR DRAWING ON VISUAL PERCEPTION AS DEMONSTRATED IN NATURALISTIC DRAWING ABILITY
Abstract
Research Questions. The following questions were under study: (1) Do blind contour drawings of an object improve one's ability to draw that object naturalistically? (2) Does blind contour drawing improve one's overall drawing ability? (3) Is there a relationship between naturalistic drawing ability and observation time? (4) Does blind contour drawing result in increased observation time while drawing conventionally? Methodology. Forty-seven female college students were assigned one of two treatments: blind contour drawing, or practice drawing with no prescribed technique. Each group was given a pretest, post-test, and follow-up drawing test of a tricycle. A series of five drawing treatments, using five different objects, were administered. Immediately following each drawing treatment the subjects were asked to draw the object to the best of their ability. The drawings were rated on "local" and "global" criteria. Observation times were determined by analyzing ten-minute video tapes of each subject. The first two research questions were tested using analysis of covariance. Question one was tested using the drawing scores of the two groups on the pretest, post-test, and follow-up test. Question two was tested using the drawing scores from the repeated measures. T-tests were used to examine questions three and four. Conclusions. Blind contour drawings of an object significantly improved the subjects' ability to draw that same object. However, there was no improvement in the subjects' ability to draw an object which had not previously been drawn via blind contour. Individuals with higher observation times demonstrated a significantly higher level of naturalistic drawing ability. However, the blind contour group did not exhibit a greater amount of observation time than did the group who practiced drawing with no prescribed technique. Recommendations. Further research is recommended: using objects of varying complexity; on the effect of blind contour drawing on the ability to learn linear perspective; using subjects of varying ages and drawing ability; and where the treatments are extended over a longer period of time.
Subject Area
Art education|Developmental psychology
Recommended Citation
KELLER, JOHN EDWIN, "THE EFFECT OF BLIND CONTOUR DRAWING ON VISUAL PERCEPTION AS DEMONSTRATED IN NATURALISTIC DRAWING ABILITY" (1987). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8722406.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8722406