More Reasons to Love Blind Contour

How to NOT get motion sick when drawing!

A two-page spread in my sketchbook showing multiple interactions of blind contour of the passing landscape.

In addition to walking in the outdoors, I love canoeing and sailing. I also enjoy ferry rides and scenic car rides. But, until recently, I never dreamed that I would one day be drawing while in a canoe or a sailboat or on a ferry. This is because I can get very motion sick.

Most people with motion sickness probably know that keeping my eyes on the horizon is one of the ways to stave off the nausea. If I have to fish for something in my bag or go below decks, I do it fast! So a drawing where I have to look down at my paper and away from the horizon for more than a minute is not something I can do comfortably. So how is it possible for me to draw while in a moving vehicle? Enter the blind contour, my favorite drawing practice and versatile hero-of-boredom-perfectionism-and-motion-sick-people!

If you already know blind contour or read my previous post that describes how I do a blind contour¹, you know that I don’t look down at the paper when I draw blind contour. So, because I have to keep my eye trained on the horizon anyway, it dawned on me that, while traveling in a moving vehicle, I could blind contour the landscape!

This was an idea planted in my head several years ago by a drawing instructor who shared that this is how she likes to draw when on road trips. I want to call it “passenger sketching” which is a term that already exist², but for me it is more than just drawing while a passenger. It’s a way to nature journal a passing or changing landscape that is accessible to someone who suffers from motion sickness.

I tried it for the first time on a short ferry ride and loved it. I am very glad I did. Much like when drawing any blind contour, the results were humorous and I really enjoyed the surprise factor.

A two-page spread in my sketchbook showing blind contour of a passing landscape and a passing ferry. There is also a loose watercolor sketch done while the ferry was loading more passengers.

I finally tried “passenger sketching” from a moving car this summer on a 2.5 hour trip. We were heading out of Seattle on a highway headed west and toward the Olympic Mountains. This highway, in various places, has stretches of road lined with tall evergreens, meadows, rolling hills, mountain peaks, views of the sound, or a combination of these. Just the kind of scenery I enjoy. With my open sketchbook in my lap and pen in hand, I waited until we came to a long stretch of road and that’s when I started drawing. Fixing my eyes on the furthest point in the distance and starting there, I drew blind contour of the passing landscape as fast as I could as that point got closer.

A two-page spread in my sketchbook showing my first car trip “passenger sketches” done as blind contour of the landscape.

I had the chance to try this from our sailboat soon after. We sail in the Puget Sound which is part of the Salish Sea. In Puget Sound, the land areas are never out of sight but this time, rather than choosing the furthest point of land in front of the boat, I decided to draw the landscape that was moving past. The landscape I was drawing wasn’t getting closer, as when I was drawing in the car, but changing nonetheless as our boat sailed past. This I truly loved!

This shows the landscape in the background and the blind contour in the foreground. The middle ground is water. My feet are extended over the water. I drew while sitting on the bow of our boat. FYI- Though you can’t see this, I was practicing boating safety and wearing a PFD!

A closer look at my blind contour passenger sketches. These were done as we passed Discovery park.

As a surprise bonus, I ended up using my pen loaded with water-soluble ink. Using water-soluble ink meant that I could activate the ink with my water brush and get some pleasing tonal effects. This suited the darkly cloudy weather perfectly!

A closer look at blind contour passenger sketches. These were done as we entered Elliot bay.

The day started overcast and stormy, but it ended in blue sky and warmth!

Left: Me - passenger sketcher. Center: Captain and spouse - Kwadwo Copeland. Right: Able Crew and Friend - Gail Tsai

I hope you enjoyed this post of A Wild Braid Nature Journal. This is a reader supported publication and I am very grateful to everyone who supports this project by subscribing, sharing, liking, commenting or leaving a small monetary donation.

Sincerely,

Alma

A Wild Braid Nature Journal is part of A Wild Braid project in which my mission is to show ways that nature walking, nature journaling, and creativity can be easily accessible, especially for those who think they have no time or have no artistic skill. To learn more, please visit www.awildbraid.com.

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1. I wrote about my favorite drawing techniques in this post.

Attention and Nature Journaling

2. Virginia Hein uses this term, “passenger sketching” and has many examples in her book, 5-Minute Sketching Landscapes: Super-Quick Techniques for Amazing Drawings.