Drawing the lines

Told to draw the lines of something without worrying about the outcome. An exercise in ‘drawing what you see’ seemed not too daunting.
Wrong.
I followed the lines of a crumpled piece of cloth with a pencil onto photocopy paper. To say I followed the lines would actually be wildly inaccurate. What I discovered was that I couldn’t see lines. I could see light and shade, variations of colour and tone. But lines? Meh, not so much.
I ended up with something that looks like a mess. Now I know that it is an exercise and it was about process not result. However it was supposed to be an exercise in seeing, in connecting hand and eye, finding a rhythm in the act of drawing. Not my strong point! In my head are these gorgeous line drawings of crumpled cloth, erm, now I think about it they are probably by some Old Master (LOL). I am so embarrassed by what I produced I am unable to share it.
Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow with something with more obvious lines.
All this reminds me of Jan’s excellent post Drawing on What I Know. I’m taking heart that she recently went to produce a lovely charcoal drawing of, wait for it, cloth! Progress is possible!