Thoughts on Drawing

Like many others, drawing was one of my favorite pastimes when I was younger. I was always fascinated with cartoons so for the most part that's what I drew. I didn't get the opportunity to take up drawing classes outside of the ones in elementary school so my skill level stayed stagnant and I struggled with drawing realistic figures. As I got older, I found it harder to find time to draw given that I needed to devote more time to my academic courses, however, I still found myself sketching images and drawing animated objects from time to time in my notebooks.

 

When I saw this class in ACES I was thrilled and thought I would finally get the chance to properly learn how to draw. I also intended for this course to be my breakaway from the rigorous load that my Pratt courses demanded. I've always been told I had an aesthetic eye and in different personality tests I scored high in creativity so I was excited to now have the opportunity to allow that creativity to flourish. Unfortunately I did not do much research on this course before I enrolled and soon found out it required a larger time commitment than I had imagined which made it even harder to fully develop my skills seeing as though I was overloading this semester. In the beginning of the semester it was relaxing, however I soon started to realize I could only dedicate enough time to do the assignments and not really practice as much as I would have liked to. Even though I did enjoy this class and improved slightly, I felt like I could have gotten a lot more out of it if I waited until my senior year where I wouldn't have been bogged down by my core engineering classes.

In terms of the structure of the class, it was not really what I expected either. Although we did get feedback on how to improve drawings, I thought there would of been a more hands on approach in showing us exactly how to draw certain things like trees for example which I struggled with. The class seemed to be set up in a trial and error format and the only way you could really improve was if you studied yourself and others' techniques as well as practiced enough to the point you were satisfied with what you were drawing. So again back to time commitment, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is overloading or has a bunch of classes requiring problems sets due each week.

Despite the few personal problems I had in this course, overall I enjoyed it and don't regret a minute of it. In this class I learned about line weight, shading, and negative space which were all techniques that helped me to achieve realistic drawings. In class we focused on drawing what we saw rather than what our minds imagined because sometimes it was easy to distort shapes and scale objects differently than how they actually appeared in front of my eyes. Looking back over my body of work I am proud of the work I have done thus far and plan to continue practicing how to draw in my sketchbook. Hopefully senior year I can take another drawing class so I can really commit to my artwork and truly express my creativity. Although my drawings may not have always been the most impressionable, the stories. themes, and reason behind them made up for the lack of artistic expression. It also helped that I drew from a personal standpoint and sense of familiarity.

I would like to get more practice with drawing from realism and maybe get the opportunity to learn how to draw people rather than just buildings and architecture. My first blogging assignment on Lord Leighton really peaked my interest on the matter of using humans as the subjects of drawing because his pieces were so beautiful yet seemed so simple. Also once color is added into the mix, there is no limit on the possibilities of what can be created! But if that does not work out, there is always animation which got me interested in drawing in the first place :)

Drawing

I am not very good at drawing. Therefore, when I signed up for this class, it was clearly not because I thought it would be an “easy A.” That’s not to say I wasn’t a little surprised at the first class meeting when Professor went over the agenda week by week. But I signed up for this class because I wanted to expand my ability in one of the areas of art that I had largely neglected up to that point. As a homeschooler, art has always taken up a significant portion of my free time. When I was younger, crafts and sewing; as I reached middle and high school, painting, fused glass, pottery, and cross-stitching. But never drawing. I’ve always enjoyed studying a good drawing, of course, but particularly those that bordered on surreal, like M.C. Escher or Picasso. I never bothered to take the time to create replicas of what I could see, when I could create abstract work out of my own head.

Fused glass bowl I made in high school

Painting of mine from 2013 

 I am still probably not what would be considered a good drawer, but I am certainly better, in the sense that I now know how to approach a project properly: break it down, order Thai food, don’t panic. Coffee helps too. One thing I do think I accomplished was putting my best foot forward on my assignments, but through effort rather than skill. The number of hours I put in (especially for the last three assignments) encompassed most every superhero movie I know, a significant portion of the series Bones, and about half the stand-up specials on Netflix. In the end though, I was able to produce drawings I was proud of, and which also had ridiculously elaborate narratives, thanks to the sheer amount of time I spent both working on and thinking about them.

 This class has certainly changed aspects of how I view buildings and landscapes. When I drove home for Thanksgiving, I thought wow, that mountain ridge would be gorgeous in charcoal. When I arrived at the front of my house I thought oh, that wraparound porch would be a bitch. To be honest, I would like to draw that mountain, and maybe even give the house a shot. And at least I wont be bashing in anyone’s kneecaps with my drawing board on the bus to Smith. I certainly like the idea of being able to take something someone likes, like a favorite superhero or landscape, and give it to them. But that certainly doesn't mean I plan on giving up my weird abstract stuff! 

Cross stitched peacock I made over the summer 

My newest area of semi-comfort
(a sketchbook drawing of Dionysus)

On Drawing and Neurosis

One of the nicer things I was told freshman year was that I looked like an engineer. Fresh off of high school where I was quite literally taken as a joke - recipient of 7th grade Stand Up Comic Award (should've won Best Hair) (still upset about it), being perceived as an engineer made me feel smart, dexterous, full of ingenuity. The reality however was that I was not an engineer, I couldn't even find e-quad. I was an artist - albeit, an insecure, fearful, and fully in denial artist.

Drawing at Duke has brought up a lot of these insecurities. I declared a Visual Arts minor my sophomore year haphazardly. Hadn't taken any classes, didn't really plan out when I'd take them, and wasn't sure that I was actually capable of making my creativity tangible. In spite of those hesitations, I declared the minor, focusing primarily in film classes. I took art in high school, where I concentrated my work in painting (primarily watercolor), but stopped after tenth grade to pursue more "legitimate" studies. I remember Ms. Mahan-Cox taking me out of class, convincing me that no one really needs AP US History and that I would be doing a great disservice to myself by discontinuing art. I never liked Ms. Mahan-Cox, so naturally, I completely rejected her advice.

It only took six years to come full circle, finding myself in an art studio. I took a step away from the policy classes and critical theory courses to evaluate what actually gave me delight. Pleasure. What actually makes me feel good, and not what I was supposed to do to be a *real* Duke student.

The first drawing classes were very therapeutic. I can't recall the last time I sat still and concentrated on one given task. The still observations were an exercise of my subjectivity - my hyperawareness of details, obsession with relativity, the tension between aesthetic illusions and *objective* realities. I felt more adept than I did in high school, more confident and more legitimate in my position as "artist." It was all happy and zen until...the landscapes. Staying focused and present wasn't hard in the studio; but in the real world, I lost. Pathetically. Unless I woke up at 3 or 4 am, I was assaulted by sensory overload. If I did get into what I was drawing, I'd spend hours meticulously creating shadows on a pole, only to realize that, shit, I have 95% of the rest of this landscape to draw. With each assignment, I could feel familiar fear boil under my skin. I wasn't content with mediocre, but I was afraid to create something I knew I was capable of. I knew that the time I spent on it would be directly correlated to the product, but I wasn't willing to put in all the time I knew was personally necessary to create a drawing that I was content with. I spent an average of 12 hours on an assignment, which really wasn't enough to capture the detail that I was looking for. Explaining to friends that I couldn't go out because I had a drawing to do made me feel...well, unjustified. How could a drawing possibly be that hard? Rephrasing the question adjusted my framework - How could using your eyes, as a camera, to capture the image in front of you, as it is, and transferring that information to your hands and to a pencil, and subsequently on paper, not be difficult?

The answer is - it's not difficult; it's downright unbearable. Consistently challenging your perception, and making you realize that your way of seeing may not always be consistent with what is actually there. That that line you thought was curved is actually straight and going at a negative 45 degree angle. In a melodramatic sense, it's a little destabilizing. But like all things, our perceptions could use a little deconstruction, and drawing became a tool to challenge my visual assumptions and a tool to acknowledge what was present.

In the time since my freshman year, I've worked through some of the fears that prevented me from pursuing creative acts. If I were to give some words of advice to freshman Yohana, I'd tell her, "the closest you'll ever get to an engineer is eating a Chicken Bacon Ranch wrap at Blue Express." I'd swiftly follow that with a light punch to the pre-Kickboxing bicep and whisper, "but you're an artist. An impatient, frantic, neurotic artist, but an artist nonetheless."

Thoughts on Drawing

            I was nervous about taking this class. I had not taken an art class in several years. In high school, I elected to take film classes instead and in middle school, art class was an opportunity to goof off with my buddies rather than sincerely express my creative spirit. I’ve always felt that I have an artistic eye. From a young age, I admired the works of impressionist painters, great cinematographers and photographers, architects, and even designers in fashion.

            My self-doubt was confirmed early on as I was clearly one of the least skilled and least experienced in my class. I struggled through our first few assignments and felt pretty uncomfortable drawing the stool and other structures during our class. I felt much more comfortable in my sketchbook. My comprehension of fundamental concepts such as shading and value were poor and it is apparent in my initial drawings. However, my skills eventually improved and I now understand how crucial it was for me to experience these difficulties. I am proud of my last three final drawings and am certain that they would not have been close to the same if I had not persevered through my early frustrations.

            As someone mentioned earlier, I am also relieved that I decided to wait until my senior year to take this course. Otherwise, I would not have been able to put the same amount of time and effort into my drawings and undoubtedly would not have grown as much as an artist. I plan on continuing to draw in a sketchbook and start exploring some more imaginative ideas. I hope to improve on drawing the human figure and plan to try my hand in painting. I’ve really appreciated the creative and meditative outlet that drawing provides.

            My drawing style took a more expressive form than others in my class. My lines were not quite as precise and I used more charcoal. I believe that this was a result of both my lesser skill and precision as well as my stylistic preference and personality. In painting, I could utilize my developing sense of content, form and proportion in drawing to structure a painting more effectively. My expressive style also seems to be more conducive to painting. I am eager to experiment in a new media and am confident that I will be able to blend the differing aspects of the pencil and brush to expand on this semester’s progress.

            Some of my favorite painters include Monet, Seurat, Van Gogh, and Dali. I’ve always appreciated the works of the Renaissance painters as well and really enjoyed the first blogging assignment because it lead me to explore the drawings of Michelangelo and confirmed that drawing is truly the basis of art, especially painting.

Drawing as it pertains to my life

Drawing for me has always been a fun activity. At a young age, I would spend spare time drawing random things, ranging from swords to stick figures to dragons. Basically any time I got bored at school I would start doodling to pass the time, and positive reinforcement from my parents kept me doing this for quite a while, probably through middle school.

In high school, however, I stopped doing this. Throughout my previous drawing career I had never compared myself to anyone else at all: my parents, brother, and classmates never drew anything at all. So the first person I compared myself to was my cousin, who is really really good at drawing and is currently enrolled at the art school at Washington University in St. Louis. Her drawings were so much better than mine that I thought that I was really bad at drawing, when in reality she was just really good. Because of this, I stopped drawing in general because I thought there was no point if they were all just horrible in comparison to the other drawings that I saw people make. Furthermore, when I switched my form of note taking from a notebook to a laptop and had reduced free time from having more work, sports, violin, and other more “mature” activities, I lost all of my opportunities to draw.

This changed for me when I went to Spain during summer after sophomore year. Here, I took notes on paper, and with daily 3-hour classes I would inevitably get bored (as Ernie can attest to). With no phone service or laptop, the only way to pass the time was to draw, so that’s what I did, as well as pretty much everyone else in the class. Although Ernie’s drawing were a lot better than mine, I realized that I wasn’t as bad as I had previously thought, both due to being more mature and having better perspective as well as receiving compliments from sources outside my family. Although their support is endless, I always take their opinions towards me with a grain of salt, since they sometimes refuse to see faults in things I do, as many parents do. The new support I got from this made me think to myself, “Hmm maybe I’m not actually so bad at drawing.”

Because of this, I was very intrigued with the prospect of taking drawing at Duke, and ended up taking it this my fall of senior year (Fall 2014). Although my drawings still aren’t top notch here (there are a lot of talented artists in the class), I have thoroughly enjoyed this class. Drawing, along with music theory, are the only two classes I’ve taken at Duke where I would do homework when I got bored to pass the time. Although I don’t necessarily love doing the projects, I have spent a lot of time in my sketchbook this semester, taking as long as 75 minutes to do a some sketchbook drawings. As a result of this, I have gotten a lot better at drawing, as some of my friends have pointed out to me. Although I may not be the best at it, I’m very glad I took this drawing class because it has made me realize that I really enjoy drawing to pass time and express myself.

 I likely will never take a drawing class again in my life, but I’m glad I seized the opportunity to take one when I got one. Looking back upon my life in a few years, it would have likely been be a big regret of mine if I hadn’t.

Thoughts on Drawing

Drawing was one of my favorite hobbies as a child, but I found myself drawing less often as I grew older. This was not due to a lack of interest, but simply a lack of time. As a student in the Pratt School of Engineering, my schedule was already laid out for me most semesters, since I had to fulfill my major's requirements and did not have much room for electives. Drawing is very time-consuming for me, since I am somewhat of a perfectionist and am very meticulous in my drawings. Thus, I could not afford to spend time drawing outside of my academics, clubs, and other commitments.

Ever since my first semester of freshman year, however, I had my eye on this course. My friend and hall-mate was in this course that semester, and I always envied her drawings, since they made me miss the hobby that I once loved. I knew that the only way I would make time in my schedule to draw was if I had to do so for a class, and so I intended to take this course during my time at Duke. Fortunately, from watching my friend's experience in this class, I was aware that it was going to be time-intensive. Thus, I made the wise decision to hold off on enrolling in this course until senior year when I had a fairly light course load.

I really enjoyed this class, and I clearly saw my drawings improve throughout the semester. The two most helpful concepts I learned this semester were the following:

1. Draw what you see, not what your brain is telling you. Draw shapes and lines, and don't think about what the object is that you are drawing.
2. Use negative space to help place the objects and make sure that the proportions are not being distorted.

Although I loved this course, I know that if my other classes had been more time intensive, this class would have been much more stressful. Drawing should be relaxing, and fortunately, it was for me. However, I can see how this course would be much less enjoyable for someone who didn't have enough time to dedicate to this class. Therefore, my advice for future students is to make sure you aren't overloading your schedule with this class--it will make it a much more worthwhile experience!

Thoughs on Drawing By Kay Zhang

I feel really lucky to be in this class this semester. I've always enjoyed drawing since I was a kid, but I never really got the chance to take any drawing class. This semester, however, I got to learn about lines, shades, negative spaces and such concepts that I always wanted to know about. I enjoyed how the class is structured so that each time we move on to a new unite we'd still be using skills we learned the week before.

However, I love drawing when I am under zero pressure and when drawing is the only thing in my mind when I do it. When I was at home, I'd paint for the entire afternoon without a good-looking, finished work, but I still enjoyed it so much. Here at Duke, I sometimes find myself drawing for the sake of finishing the assignment. Not saying it's a bad thing, it is simply because we are all entangled with too many other things in this campus, and it's hard to put that all behind and enjoy three-good-hours of drawing.

Other than that I really enjoyed this class. I would send my mom a picture every time I finish an assignment. She always gives me super positive comments and she's been talking about I should be a professional painter forever. One way I wish to incorporate drawing and other things I am passionate about is through fashion sketching. I am tremendously intrigued by fashion like many other girls, and I want to actively seek conversation with people in this field. Here are some of the sketches of my favorite brand Dolce & Gabbana.

As we can see, different designers adopt different styles. Their personal styles are tightly linked towards the branding, marketing of the company. Though what we learn this semester, I am more confident about drawing in terms of potion of different body parts.