Thoughts on Drawing

I didn’t come into this class expecting too much, but feel like I’m leaving with so much more. I used to draw quite often in Middle School, but besides my extensive doodles in my economics notebooks, I hadn’t done much since then.

However, I’ve always appreciated art, especially in its more complex forms. As a visual and media studies minor, I have loved getting to learn the intricacies behind graphic design and how the technology and art have increasingly interacted to sometimes distort and sometimes clarify our perception of the world around us.

While my work with media has become more and more complex, I think it was really important for me to take a step back and bring it back to just pencil and paper. I think one of the hardest parts for me was once again being forced to deal with the tiny imperfections that make art so beautiful. With drawing, there is no “undo” button and lines just never seem to turn out perfectly straight, and that’s totally okay.

My favorite drawing of the semester was by far the final fictional drawing. I decided to depict Harry Potter Elements on the Gothic West campus. I think the drawing capture many of the skills that I have learned throughout the semester. I consciously created dense texture in the grass and roof while using contrasting shades to draw attention to different elements. I also tried to create a distinct foreground, mid-ground, and background, which some of my previous drawing lacked.

I feel like I definitely improved throughout the semester and many of these skills have translated positively into my other fields of work, art related and otherwise. I’ve started to once again sketch out idea before starting my graphic designs and even mapping out my web design ideas with color pencils before I even write a single line of code.

Drawing has been a relaxing part of my week and gives me time to think and see things in a different way. My sketchbook still has blank pages waiting to be filled.