Drawing For Me

I have always considered myself to be a creative person, and I have always loved drawing. That said, I think I am a decent drawer, but it is definitely not my natural area of strength. I want to be an interior designer, and I am a very visual person, but I think I really work best with 3-D objects. This class was  an excellent fit for me because it allowed me to develop a skill I enjoy as a hobby in what felt like a very safe, inviting, and non-judgmental environment. In my future, I will certainly have to draw, though it is more likely to be formalized, exact scale sketches. Although that is a different skill, I think that being comfortable drawing free hand and developing an eye for how scale should look without using a ruler are invaluable assets.

One of the elements that I enjoyed most in this class was the chance to increase my comfort level with charcoal. Although I took drawing in high school, we had been primarily restricted to graphite as our medium. I really love the drama that charcoal adds to an image, as well as the increased ability to blend and use deeper tones. I also enjoyed using my imagination and exploring non-architectural subjects. I became much more comfortable drawing as the course went on, and developed new techniques each week. I particularly enjoyed learning to draw different textures, such as grass, trees, and stone, and I feel that I improved tremendously in this area the more I practiced.

I look forward to continuing free handed drawing in addition to design sketches. It will always be a past time that helps me to clear my head and look at things in a new light, and I certainly hope to take more drawing classes in the future after my time at Duke.