So the reason it’s so damn hard to draw stuff is because we think we already know what it looks like. A tree’s a brown rectangle with a fluffy green blob on top, right? Or in fall it’s a fluffy orange blob. Depending on country of course. And a human face is a big ova with two ovals for the eyes, with dots in ’em. The mouth is a half-circle. BAH! Symbols! Free your mind of symbols! Here’s another technique to help you do that.

The trick here is, we’re gonna be drawing something that doesn’t HAVE a symbol. So what I want you to do is find a piece of scrap paper or a brown paper bag that you don’t need or care about. Now it’s important that you don’t care about it ’cause you’re gonna tear it, crumple it, and basically turn it into a weird abstract shape. Try and make it into as odd a shape as you can without shredding it into more than one piece (but if you DO end up with multiple pieces, it’s fine).

Now, we’re gonna do another contour drawing of it. This time you can look at your paper, but you still can’t lift your pen or pencil. The idea is to start at one place, and trace every line, follow every jagged edge, and every rip. Don’t worry if you have to go back over a line or cut across an area. The idea is to follow the edges of this crumpled thing as faithfully as possible. Since your left brain doesn’t have a ready-made symbol for a crumpled mass of ripped paper, it’ll let your right brain take over and see what you actually see. Give it a try!