Thoughts on Drawing

I really enjoyed this semester in Drawing 199. I went into the class expecting to just practice drawing because I never thought of drawing as something that could be taught. However, I feel like I really improved my skills. Surprisingly, I had never drawn using just lines before. I always used shading to cover up any mistakes I had made. Our first assignment was two study drawings, which were supposed to just be rough sketches of a couple objects. I came into class with two drawings that were completely shaded in. I am really happy that this class was able to break my bad habit of using shading as a crutch.
I especially feel more comfortable drawing scenery, where as before I only felt comfortable drawing free standing objects. I had heard of the concepts of foreground, mid-ground, and background, but had never put them into practice. I now feel very familiar with these and am confident in choosing scenery that includes them in order to make a more interesting drawing. I also believe that learning how to use references and mixing both drawing from observation and pictures will help me.
While overall I am very glad I took this class, there were a few things I did not love. The main one was during class we sketched what was in front of us. We started off with a table, a mannequin, and some other objects. While these were interesting the first several weeks, after a while it got very boring to sketch the same objects. I also do see how drawing the same objects from different perspectives can be useful in a drawing class. As time when on I got comfortable with these objects and used a lot of different techniques on the same pair of legs.
I initially took this class because as an engineer I want to be able to show other people what I am picturing in my own head. I definitely think this class has helped me get closer to doing that. I now feel a lot more comfortable drawing from observation and not just pictures. I was always very confused on how people could just draw straight from images in their heads. When I think of ideas and want to put them on paper, they never look like what I am thinking because I don't have a clear picture in my head. This class helped me learn that nobody can just draw straight from their mind, references are always used.