As I haven’t yet managed to get to the shops and purchase sketchbooks and paper for the course (due to child-related distractions!), I am making good use of the time in between to read through the introductory pages of the course folder and I’m finding the excitement building further with every sentence I take in. An interesting point in the introduction….
“Even when we cant understand a word of a particular language, we can readily relate and respond to a drawing”
I love that drawing is viewed almost as a universal language, one which we all speak and understand. Another great quote, for me personally:
“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing” – Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso: Igor Stravinsky, pencil and charcoal, 620×485 mm, 1920
Picasso was undoubtedly a great draughtsman, with surrealist tendencies, who I’m sure will be a big influence on my work during the course, as well as an artist I shall be researching further.
Reading about the history of drawing, it is interesting to note that paper didn’t exist until around 1300AD, with drawing paper following in 1500AD. Artists during this period were applying their art directly onto specially prepared grounds, as the practice of making preliminary drawings was almost unheard of – a scary thought! I cant imagine the pressure the artists felt to get the artwork just right, as I certainly couldn’t work in such a way!
The 15th century clearly heralded a time for change, a new era where drawing became more than an artistic talent but also a way for artists to record the world around them, to collect ideas and jot down designs. Leonardo da Vinci was clearly a pioneer of such detailed drawings, with his extraordinarily beautiful technical drawings depicting his inventions or his dissected, meticulously-studied subjects.
Leonardo da Vinci: sketch of feotus in the womb
Drawing moved towards a much softer approach during the Romantic movement, and the 19th and 20th centuries saw a move towards a style of drawing that expressed the artists’ thoughts and feelings, and conveyed more than just rigid observation; Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt are notable for this, and I hope to study their work in more depth as the course progresses.
I have just received the course materials for Drawing 1: Drawing Skills, along with Painting 1: The Practice of Painting, and can honestly say I am extremely excited about getting started. I’ll be taking these two courses over one year (hopefully), working towards a BA (Hons) in Creative Arts.
I have never really studied drawing in any real depth, other than maybe identifying the various materials that can be employed, therefore I am very keen to learn more about the history, theory and techniques of drawing.
My BA (Hons) Creative Arts Journey with the OCA 