Thoughts on Drawing

If I had to choose one thing that this class has helped me to develop the most, I would say awareness. By having to study shapes carefully to draw them accurately, I have become more aware of the true forms and shades of the objects around me. I realize that it is perhaps human nature to 'see' symbols of things instead of the things themselves. Drawing from memory tends to result in over-idealized and simplified forms - for example, perfect football shapes for eyes, or a sky full of clouds all with the same shape, or a cube with poor perspective. By focusing on the actual scale and shape of objects (and through experiments such as the drawing of negative space), I have gained a heightened sense of what I'm actually looking at on a day to day basis, seeing more with my eyes than my brain, so to speak.

I'm more aware of the effort it takes to create a convincing drawing, both in terms of the mental effort of shaping and scaling all the objects appropriately and the physical exertion of applying a texture or a shade to a large area of a drawing without getting sloppy (never have I more appreciated the computer's functionality of being able to copy and clone).

I'm more aware of the stories people conceive as a background to their art. By hearing my classmates discuss what their art meant to them and how they interpreted the events occurring in their depiction, I am left with a better sense of how artists in general think, and understand that there may a be a great deal of meaning behind any work of art that would be difficult to perceive by any way other than talking to the artist themselves.

Finally, and most satisfyingly, I'm gained awareness that I'm actually not half bad at drawing.