Thoughts on drawing -- Joe Yetter

I have grown up drawing.  When I was younger (elementary school) I first started drawing with my friend because we wanted to see who could draw the best dragons, dinosaurs and dragon ball Z characters.  This soon became my repatuar and I became fairly skilled at drawing these subjects.  My parents then put me into a summer drawing class.  There I first learned how to draw with shading and values.  Since then, however, I didn’t take another drawing class until now.  I find that something that I have always enjoyed could be a great opportunity to relax and do school work without actually doing school work.

This semester I have used my time drawing as a time to spend by myself in thought.  This has been a great break from other school work which I often find stressful.  Drawing allowed me to stop thinking about other things and truly delve into thought.  After my initial study drawing was finished I felt as though the process went very smoothly and methodically.  When I started my drawings I always finished them in one sitting and tried not to break my concentration or mood.  It was the perfect release for me this semester.  I have found that this semester has been significantly less stressful than any semester I have had at Duke, because when other work was beginning to weigh on me I took the rest of the night to stop thinking about Economics problem sets and Spanish papers.  Instead, I would take those nights to draw; that is, to relax.

I believe I have progressed throughout the semester.  Something that I have struggled with is the use of charcoal, but this semester I have tried to branch out and try things that I am not used to drawing.  I am very proud of the drawings I have done this semester and I believe that I have grown a lot as an artist.  Now I understand that drawing is not something that you are naturally skilled at, but rather it is something that you work on, making multiple practiced and study drawing for every work that you produce.

In total, this class has been one of my favorite classes at duke, not only because it is in a topic that I might never get the chance to do in the future, but also because it allowed me to spend time in thought as I worked and improved on my artistic and creative skills.