ART 12: BEGINNING DRAWING
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
summer 2008
Drawing is both thinking and communicating. It provides an integral sense of how to train yourself to see, and to convey ideas visually to others.
“Seeing comes before words… It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it .”
John Berger, Ways of Seeing
Drawing is a primary language, which once understood, can be implemented to create a more fluent, fluid ability to communicate visually. The focus of this class was on building this initial vocabulary, through the acquisition of technical, compositional and critical studio drawing skills, as well as discussion, critique and reflection.
Learning to draw is not just brute studio time: it’s looking deeply at, thinking about and discussing one’s work and the work of others. This class also incorporated readings, slides, field trips and group critiques to enhance students’ creative process and critical language skills.
Students completed this course with a body of work that included observational studies, extended projects, journal exercises, written work, and a final portfolio, all of which reflected their amplified understanding of drawing concepts, methods, and content.