When a program speaker for my art club had to cancel, I stepped in and did something I have been wanting to do with this group for a long time. Get them to loosen up and laugh. I think that sometimes laughing at your art is a healthy thing to do. I’ll explain soon.

So, I did a program on The Art Of The Continuous Line. Most of the group had not done these before while some had not done them since college classes.
If you need a refresher, continuous line drawings are done exactly as it’s stated. With ONE continuous line as I did with the orchid drawing seen here. You don’t lift your pen, pencil, charcoal… whatever you’re using… from your drawing surface. This is also often called contour line drawing. Slow and steady. At this point, no laughing at your art is happening.
Then there are Continuous Line Exercises! These are often done as “timed” (I like two to three minutes) or blind… not looking at your drawing surface. Which is extremely hard to do. Most people have to peek, more than once, to see where they are on the paper.
Here’s the kicker. I made the club members do BOTH at the SAME TIME. Timed and blind. (I lovingly call it drunk drawing.) I also had them doing these using each other as the subject. It was so much fun. The results were so funny. I don’t think I’ve heard this group do this much laughing in years.
As I told them. We were there to “loosen up, laugh, and learn”. We did all three. I assured them, “we aren’t laughing at your art, we are laughing with your art. It probably only makes sense to me.

I have since done this program for another group and will be teaching workshops on taking these exercises to the next level with mixed media techniques. Maybe you, the reader, will give it a try wherever you are.
Just be sure to do it with a friend. After all, laughter is good for the soul. So is laughing at your art (from time to time).
P.S. I peeked on this one.