DRAWING I

Basic Drawing Information:

     Students in Drawing engage in sequential learning experiences that encompass art history, art criticism, aesthetics and production that lead to the creation of portfolio quality works. Development of drawing skills is the primary objective of this class and uses the human figure, still life objects and drawing from life to help accomplish this goal. Students will learn specific techniques and approaches to drawing through the use of various leaded pencils. Additionally, students (1) reflect upon the outcome of these experiences, (2) explore cultural and historical connections, (3) write about the process, (4) make presentations about their progress at regular intervals, (5) find a direct correlation to other disciplines, and (7) explore career options related to drawing. Learning to draw is made up of building blocks that become integrated into a whole skill. Once you have learned the components and have integrated them, you can draw – just as once you have learned to read, you know how to read for life. Progress takes the form of practice, refinement of technique, and learning when and what to use the skills for.

     The skill of drawing something that you “see” (object, person, or landscape) requires only 5 basic component skills. These are not drawing skills. They are perceptual skills:    

  1.  The perception of edges.

          2.  The perception of spaces.

          3.  The perception of relationships.

          4.  The perception of lights and shadows.

          5.  The perception of the whole, or gestalt. 

But do not forget, you also need personal creativity, imagination, and expressive ideas.    

     The use of line is learned through contour drawing of shapes and spaces. The use of value is learned through rendering lights and shadows. The use of color primarily requires the ability to perceive color and value. This ability is difficult, almost impossible, to acquire unless one has learned to perceive the relationships of lights and shadows through drawing.

     Drawing is a curious (involved) process, so intertwined with “seeing” that the two can hardly be separated. The ability to draw depends on the ability to see the way an artist sees, and this kind of seeing can enrich your life. You need to learn to “see” in order to draw well. Drawing is a learnable, teachable skill. You will learn how to process visual information in the special way used by artists. This way is different from the way you usually process visual information and seems to require that you use your brain in a different way than usual.

     In the process of learning to draw, one also learns to control how one’s own brain handles information. The artist way of “seeing” is a two-part process. First, to open access to the right side of brain (R-mode) by purposely forcing your left-brain to do something it will not. This will shut the left side down leaving the right side able to work freely. Second, to learn to see things in a different way. Artists describe the R-mode as a feeling of being transported, “at one with the work”, and feeling free of anxiety. Other activities that also switch on the R-mode brain side are meditation, jogging/running, listening to music, playing an instrument, driving continuous and straight for long periods like on a freeway.

     Therefore, the key to learning to draw is to set up conditions that cause you to make a mental shift to a different mode of information processing, the slightly altered state of consciousness, that enables you to see well. Drawing will tap into the special abilities of the right side (R-mode) of your brain, the side that is right for drawing.

     We will be trying, for the most part, on learning to draw realistically, that is, to enable you to see and draw some object or person in the real world with a high degree of similarity to the observed image. 

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