Apologies if this strays too far from the subjects of PhD studies and research but an exchange between Keith and Martin about drawing in the " How to teach argument ability to design students?" thread brings to mind some questions I am dealing with.
Now that my spring semester is over, I can begin obsessing about the next one. This coming fall I am going to teach a basic drawing class for the first time. It is one of our "foundations" classes taken by all students in the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art program here at East Carolina University before they start media- or subject-specific work. This includes students who will have concentrations in graphic design, animation/interactive design, filmmaking, and photography (of the fine art variety) in addition to a range of art and craft areas.
Many of the students in the areas I listed currently feel ill served by our foundations program (which is generally run by people with a traditional fine art and craft background.) The basic drawing class tends to start out with perspective, drawing some cubes, and then goes on to a bunch of observational drawing--stools, ladder back chairs, and pumpkins seem to dominate the work--concentrating on line quality. The main purpose of the class seems to be to foster the sort of drawing skills that make artists say that someone draws well.
I am not specifically dismissing traditional art drawing skills, by the way. Beautiful rendering is like eloquent prose. It is convincing, can help promote clear understanding, and has intrinsic value. I just don't believe that these skills are the first thing a group of eighteen year olds wanting a career in art and design should deal with. Also, too many of them see drawing class as a barrier to be breached before getting on with what they want to do rather than as a tool for doing what they want to do. (I think that our current approach could be greatly improved upon for people who want an art career but the deficiencies for designers and filmmakers are the most obvious problems.)
My goal for the class is to promote drawing for communication of ideas. This includes communicating with others such as collaborators, clients, and other stakeholders--especially concentrating on bringing others into the creative process--and communicating with oneself--for understanding plans but especially in formal idea generation processes.
I am seeking any comments on the subject whether broadly philosophical or concrete and specific (including examples of assignments that have been successful in the teaching of specific aspects of seeing and thinking.) If your comments don't seem to be of interest to the list (or if you think this entire subject is too off-topic), please email me off list at [log in to unmask]
(In case anyone is interested, my current thought is that I will start with having them do measured drawings of an object--plan and elevation views, then orthographic versions--followed by perspective drawings. Then much of the class will be drawing quickly from imagination especially in aid of developing and expanding a visual vocabulary for a subject that can allow the combination of vocabulary items in different ways. (By drawing, I mean pencils, pens, and paper including a lot of tracing paper.) Then we'll deal with time and narrative--like comics or story boards--maybe turning those drawings into animatics. The textbook for the class will be Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics." Like I said, all comments and suggestions are welcome.)
Gunnar
Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
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Gunnar Swanson Design Office
1901 East 6th Street
Greenville NC 27858
USA
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
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+1 252 258-7006
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