When I took art classes in college I always enjoyed contour drawing. Contour drawing is where you look at the object you are drawing and NOT at your paper.
I got quite good at it and decided that I would use that technique for my Inspiration drawing. It took me awhile to actually get to it and when I finally did I just sat down and drew with what I had – no fancy drawing book or paper or pen. I used the following two photos as the basis for my inspiration drawings.
![Crate & Barrel Regent Serveware Crate & Barrel Regent Serveware](https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Image0126-300x240.jpg)
Dishes are below:
![Crate & Barrel Regent Place Setting Crate & Barrel Regent Place Setting](https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Image0125-300x240.jpg)
And here are the contour drawings:
Serveware:
![Serveware Contour Drawing Serveware Contour Drawing](https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/PICT5849sm-265x300.jpg)
I left a little of the notebook page in when I cropped the picture so you could see that I just used my working journal; I didn’t use anything special. I did the drawing at a Starbuck’s using a picture on my phone and the pen I had in my purse.
Here is the place setting:
![Place Setting Contour Drawing Place Setting Contour Drawing](https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/PICT5850sm-300x284.jpg)
This one came out much better. I am out of practice using this technique. One of the things I like about contour drawing is the movement you get in the drawing.