Thoughts on Drawing -- Katja

Ever since I was kid, I have enjoyed doing art. I always took any art classes offered to me, in addition to also doing art for myself at home. Throughout the past several years, my interests have shifted away from pencil drawings and towards photography and watercolor painting. Going into college, I knew I wanted to continue my passion for art, and this course offered me the opportunity to reconnect with my original love of just holding a pencil.

At the beginning of the semester, I was unsure of the drawings that we did. We first began with study drawings and then developed line, something that I had never done in the past. In addition to this, I have always been taught to never draw definite lines in my artwork, but, instead, develop line through value. This made me very hesitant to using line at first, which is why, in my earlier works for this class, I use very minimal line with little variation in depth.

Another challenge in this course was drawing from observation. I have become accustomed to drawing from my imagination or recreating other artists’ works. So, when I had to draw from observation, I hesitated in how I expressed what I saw. My earlier works in the course looked quite bland; but, as the semester went on, I started becoming more comfortable with lines and values, so my drawings developed more character.

The sketchbook showed another side of my drawing experience. Each entry was supposed to only take about twenty minutes, but, being a perfectionist, this proved to be a challenge. I did not enjoy how my sketchbook turned out when I spent the limited time on it. I also did not have an hour for each individual entry. In addition to the time struggle, I also did not have a very good idea about what I wanted to draw, so I started trying out different techniques and styles. I came to really like drawing the human figure.

Overall, this course definitely challenged my idea of drawing. However, it also reconnected me with a medium I have always had a special affinity for. I was also able to begin developing my own personal style of drawing, something that I have always wanted to do.