Reflections on Drawing - Christy Kim

Prior to this class, I have always identified myself as a 3-D art-oriented artist than anything else. As I have had less-extensive background in the 2-D field of art, I believed that my techniques in drawing were often very weak. Although I had always doodled a lot in my childhood, they were simply line-doodles and did not utilize values or depth perceptions. As a result, I simply avoided creating artworks that involved them. In junior high school, we were required to take an art elective course in either drawing or sculpture. At that time, I chose to take sculpture simply because I believed my drawing skills were inadequate. Since then, I had nottaken an art course until senior year of my high school, which happened to be another 3-D art class.

When I chose to come to Duke, I came with the mindset that I was going to pre-med, majoring in a science-related field. When I told my parents that I had enrolled in a drawing course for Spring semester, they were very alarmed at first. In high school, I had spent and devoted a significant chunk of my time to art, which frequently (if not always) interfered with my academics. They hoped that I would not continue art in college because they were afraid of the same occurrence. Although I did devote a significant amount of time to this course this semester, I was able to balance it successfully with all of my studies. Drawing assignments and sketchbook assignments, in particular, played an integral part in being a stress outlet and creativity stimuli.I showed my parents that an art course can not only be beneficial to my studies but also confirm my passion for visual arts. Having taken this class, I can fervently say that I would be ecstatic about pursuing a career in visual arts. Now, I have officially decided on visual arts as my prospective major.

Moreover, this course provided the exact instruction and assignments that I needed to advance my drawing skills, if not my 2-D art skills as a whole. I learned not only the basic principles and techniques of drawing but also how to draw using direct and indirect observations. I feel that the foundation for drawing that I have always been lackinghad been well-placed after this course. Furthermore, my interest in drawing and sketches have expanded dramatically. Upon adding several drawing & sketch-related blogs to my list, I discovered some styles that I really found appealing (such as

the one above & to the right).