Method: Choose a smallish object you know well, preferably something with a fairly distinctive shape. Position it on a table with a sketchpad next to it. Put your pencil in the middle of your sketchpad then close your eyes. Reach out for your object and feel it; as you do this, make a record of what you feel on your sketchpad with your pencil. Feel free to take a peek and reposition your pencil at any time, but do so as little as possible. Make several studies until you feel that you’ve arrived at something interesting.”

I start this exercise in the A4 sketchbook, by choosing to touch a small plant on my table. I also try it touching my foot.

I am noting an interesting resistance to letting go of the control that the sight gives, there is an urge to peek .

Having little time to myself these quarantine days, I transform this into a family activity, where we all, baby included, sit around the table and draw blind. I touch my own face for self portraits and then we draw each other without looking at the paper.

This produces some hilarious portraits and much laughter- I can definitely recommend it as an activity for quarantine days!

It is interesting to note how it took several attempts to move from a schematic, imagined view to actually draw what I felt, touching my face.

On this page, I tried to touch my face for the top one, and imagine it without looking at the page for the bottom drawing. The touching one definitely feels more evocative and true, compared to the imagined one that becomes a caricature. In the comparison, I understood that when wanting, I could let go and record the sensation of touch, and rather than trying to substitute sight, let that lead me to a new language.