Sydney Howland --Thoughts On Drawing

Drawing is a form of expression that allows each and every one of us to communicate to others our unique way of seeing the world.  We all see the same things, but interpret images individually, instinctive to our values, beliefs, and feelings. We all make personal connections to our surroundings, and drawing allows for a way of sharing what we see without having to put these experiences into words.

I enjoy drawing because it allows me to use a different part of my brain than that which I use during most of my other classes. I find the process of drawing both calming and awakening, because it lets one side of my brain rest while the other remains active. Drawing requires a specific type of consciousness, a kind that makes us hyper aware of our surroundings and how our figure fits into the world around us. I enjoy feeling this heightened sense of awareness, and think anyone can benefit from learning to see in this way.

I like that drawing offers choices. One might choose to create an accurate depiction of what they see, or imagine, through an attempt to recreate our own unique reality. Or, one might choose to produce an abstract representation of thoughts or feelings in a way that allows the viewer to react and respond as they see fit.

Drawing forces us to use our eyes. And then to question what our eyes see, and what they tell our brain. Drawing can take the form of positive space, or negative space, shifting in between what is full and what is empty. Often the emptiness is the hardest to portray, because our eyes confuse the lights with the darks and the objects we see versus what lies beyond.

I like that drawing can be free form. It can be as simple as closing your eyes and exploring the different way your hand can interact with the pencil and paper. I like that drawing can be mathematical. It can involve measuring and re-measuring exact distances in order to represent the empirical perspective.

I think it’s interesting to watch other people to draw, and to go to museums to study the work of other artists. I think each of us can learn something from studying art, and the history of art, and how the styles have changed over generations and across cultures. When I lived abroad in Spain, I took two art classes that held field trips to many of the famous museums. As a visual learner, the lessons held in places like The Prado and La Reina Sofia, had much greater impact than those in the classroom. I found that looking at art, and applying the concepts in our textbooks to the works in museums, increased my interest in the study of art and ultimately led me to enroll in drawing class at Duke.

Thoughts on Drawing

I came into this class hoping to build some practical skills in visual art – more for draftsmanship than creative work, since I may need some experience with scientific illustration for a job down the line. Although I did pick up some technical understanding of how to use line weights, values, etc., this class was most valuable to me because it made me practice something regularly for a semester.

I spent a lot of time on practice as a kid who was a pretty serious musician – which I then gave up completely to be a high-achieving student, just like most creative people at Duke. I’m about to graduate, and my education here has prepared me very well in certain skills – I think universities are very good at developing cleverness and capacity for hard work, but less so at developing the methodical, slow work ethic you need to really master something in the long term. Slowing down in drawing class, particularly through keeping a sketchbook, was an opportunity to practice practicing. It was surprising how strange it felt to get back into the habit of doing things for the sake of the process, rather than for a finished product.

I was completely disappointed in all my assignments, although I think I learned a lot about the technical aspects of drawing by noticing what irritated me about my own. On the other hand, I really enjoyed working in my sketchbook, and am very proud of some of my work there. I was worried in January that I would end up half-assing the sketchbook, putting in a couple of doodles a week to meet a quota, but instead ended up fighting the urge to spend too much time “perfecting” a drawing when I didn’t need to. I tried to work more loosely and to use mediums, like watercolor, that I’m not good with to break the habit of approaching everything like a graded assignment.

Mengyun Lu - Drawing is a meditation

Since I was a little kid, I never had any patience for drawing. Sitting for hours on end to sketch out intricate details of fruits and sculptures seemed overly tedious, and I often entertained myself by licking lollipops and making loud burps while my hand dragged lackadaisically across an absent sketch. The subsequent scorching glare from my art teacher only turned me further away from drawing, though my interest in art never ceased.

Art for me became crafts, colors, and anything new, creative, or fun. However, I stopped sitting down and really committing myself to long periods of drawing. And so it was that I was flabbergasted when I found myself in a swamp of rather time consuming drawing assignments this semester. Having taken almost all engineering and science classes for the past four years, I had originally planned for drawing to be an easy, fun, last-semester-of-senior-year sort of class. As such, when the first couple of assignments made their appearances, the time and dedication involved were unwelcome, to say the least.

I preferred the quicker sketchbook drawings to assignments that I eschewed because of my subconscious retreat from the hours I knew I would have to put in before I even started. Whenever I set aside time to work on a drawing, I found it hard to sit still while repressing the urge to move around and do something more physical, from playing a little tune on the piano to chasing my little brother all around the house.

The predictable result of this restlessness is far too many late night races to complete an assignment on time, which sapped the fun out of the drawing process itself. As the semester progressed, I realized that I have yet to make a drawing that I would be proud to call my own. With the help of music, I started forcing myself to draw without outside distractions and focus solely on the drawing.

As it turns out, spending those extra minutes, whether to correct that crooked line or add more detailed shading to that empty spot, made a world of difference. Though the final drawing itself may not be considered great in artistic standards, it did become something I'm proud of, something I wouldn't have believe myself capable of creating at the beginning of the semester. For me, drawing does not work as a careless hustle, but rather a conscientious meditation.

Maintaining Inspiration at Duke

Before college, art was never just something I did for myself. I took art classes in school all throughout middle school and high school, so having art homework on top of academic work was normal. Don’t get me wrong, I love art (and it was always my decision to take art classes), so drawing homework never had the same negative connotation as writing an essay or doing physics homework. And, though I wasn’t aware of it at the time, I was incredibly lucky to have been taught a large variety of artistic techniques at a young age. However, as much as I enjoyed my art classes, the majority of my art in high school was something I was doing because an authority figure was telling me to do it. After finishing my AP Studio Art portfolio senior year of high school, I was glad to get a break from structured art.

I thought that once I started college, I would become the kind of person who never wasn’t creating art, even if that just meant keeping a daily sketchbook. I thought that being forced to create art on a timed schedule was something that hurt my artistic voice rather than something that helped maintain it. But then college actually started, and I found myself creating less art then any other time in my life. Art was something I knew I was good at; I wanted to see what else I could do. So drawing and painting took a back seat to the self-exploration associated with freshman year. The workload of engineering schedules and the pressures of Duke’s social scene didn’t really leave much time for me to spend by myself creating art. And I guess I just got used to not drawing or painting on a regular basis.

By the end of first semester sophomore year, it felt wrong to show people images of my high school artwork. I’m not the same person I was when I made those works; they were from a different time of my life. But when friends asked to see my art, I had nothing more recent to show them besides some drawings in my sketchbook. So, I made the decision to take a drawing class. Initially I was nervous that I wouldn’t have enough time to keep up with my other classes while creating art that I could be proud of. But despite the amount of time I spent working on my drawings, I really enjoyed having structured art back in my life. It was good to have deadlines to force me to finish the pieces I started, and drawing provided a nice break from hours of science and engineering. This class wasn’t restrictive at all, giving me the opportunity to draw what I wanted and to explore a new medium (ballpoint pen). Duke made it really easy for me to get caught in a cycle of not creating art, but taking this class helped me break that cycle. 

Art as a Creative and Inspirational Tactic

A love for the arts seems to have been genetically passed down in my family. Both of my grandmas had an exceptional mind for creativity and an eye for visual inspiration, expressing their interests and opinions through painting, drawing, and needlework. My parents are also propelled by the visual beauty of things, and express their artistic abilities through designing accessories. This is probably why they enrolled me in art classes at the age of 6… Since then, I have always shown great interest in the arts, which has sparked my creative mind in various subjects throughout my life.

As I previously mentioned, I started taking art lessons when I was only 6 years old. My first projects included paper mache, finger-painting, and tracing photos with translucent paper. However, as I got older I started learning more intricate techniques relating to drawing and painting, such as blending and textures. While most of my art classes revolved around painting, I also did plenty of artwork on the sidelines and in school, which allowed me to develop my drawing skills. When I was younger, my favorite images to draw were flowers and pine trees. As I got older, I started drawing more complex landscapes and still lifes. One of my biggest struggles throughout my artistic career was my ability to draw people, which I endure even to this day.

While I enjoy drawing on its own, the creative edge it entails has been hammered into my mind and has come into use throughout my life. Art, in general, has enabled me to think outside the box, to connect not-so-relatable concepts and make sense out of them, and to come up with ways to view topics or principles in a new light. For instance, throughout my academic career, I have conducted several scientific research experiments, such as the effect of a particular mutant cancer gene on brain tumor progression. At the beginning of my project, I had issues with the amount of time it took for tumors to progress and the amount of time I had in the lab. I therefore had to think of ways to enhance the progression of tumors while still getting effective and realistic results. While I of course needed a scientific background to conduct this project at all, my artistic background and the creative thinking it required enabled me to more easily propose a protocol that hadn’t been worked up before. In general, having engraved a creative mindset from such a young age has helped me think of new ways to connect factors and form a relationship between them.

While I have been able to sneak in a couple artistic assignments for my science classes every now and then, one of my biggest struggles when I came to Duke was the lack of time I had to designate to drawing and painting. With the heavy load of classes and requirements I, and the majority of students, had to fulfill over the course of my Duke career, I hardly had anytime to draw or paint on the sidelines. This semester, my final semester at Duke, I finally had the opportunity to take an art class and remind myself before I enter the real world how much I truly love and enjoy art.

Thoughts on Drawing

I've been interested in drawing since the 2nd grade, when I found myself very much enjoying my art class.  I had an interesting realization then - I discovered that I could replicate images on paper, going beyond the doodles and stick figures that I and my peers had been drawing for ages.  This is not to say that I was any good at it, but simply that it had not occurred to be before then that I could try to replicated images and real life in a more sophisticated manner.  After that silly realization, I found myself doodling and copying images I saw everywhere - the cover of my textbooks, the cartoons on TV, etc.  For some reason, I thought that because my drawings were based on images rather than real life or my mind, that my talents were sub-par.  Earlier on, I did not want to admit that I copied an image that I found.  I wanted people to think it came from my mind or real life.  I realize now how silly that was.

I drew a lot in elementary and middle school, but took a four-year hiatus in high school.  It saddened to realize that I had forgotten about a hobby that I liked so much, so in college I took drawing up again.  I tried drawing more sophisticated images - people, landscapes, buildings.  It was hard.  I was almost never happy with the result.  I found that I had more talent for drawing shapes and lines accurately, but I had little talent for creating value or texture.  I decided to try this drawing course for two reasons: 1. because I wanted to force myself to give myself time to do something that I enjoyed and 2. because I wanted to learn how to improve my skills in creating value and texture.

I learned several things in this course.  First and foremost, I found that, unfortunately, drawing loses a lot of its fun when the subject is chosen for you and when there is a deadline to meet.  This is why I enjoyed the last few assignments, where we were given more freedom to choose our subjects.  I had a lot of fun brainstorming ideas for our last assignment.

As I predicted, I had a lot of trouble figuring out shading and value.  Up until now, I had only ever drawn with a pencil or pen, so figuring out all of the new tools was interesting.  I was hesitant to create bold blacks in my drawings.  To an extent, I still am, but I admire the bold values that I saw in many of my classmate's drawings, so I am trying to fix that. 

On that note, I really enjoyed being able to see my classmate's drawings every week.  They inspired me to try new techniques, and they helped me figure out how to draw certain things - for example, bushes.  I had no idea how to begin to draw bushes or trees, but after studying my classmate's drawings, I fiddled around with several techniques and found a few that worked for me.  

 I do think that I have improved this past semester, but there is obviously so much room to grow.  One day, I want to be able to draw something that I am proud of enough to hang in my home.  I want to create scenes that only exist in my mind, and I want the image in my mind to be reflected well on paper.  I am thankful for this class, and going forward I am hoping that I will continue to draw in the future.

I found my voice in drawing in drawing 199

I really enjoyed the drawing class this semester - looking back all the drawing I did over the semester, I'm surprised how much a semester and 100+ hours' of practice can do! When I was in primary school, I would drawing 3-6 hours every week. Only sculpture sketch though. I remember me the little girl sitting there wondering why I needed to draw the same boring sculpture, from different angle, for multiple times. I couldn't sit for three hours because that kind of drawing didn't intrigue me. I didn't know how to draw like all the other high school kids sitting around me, who are preparing to get into art schools. I thought that was what drawing was about, was never very interested in it, and thought what I did in that studio was all I could ever do with drawing. 

During 199, we were encouraged to draw things that interest us, and do add our own styles to the drawing. When I first drew in the class, I kept doing what I did as a kid simply because that was the only way I knew. In the class, however, I saw people draw expressively with charcoal, and saw people drawing with their own styles. I was inspired and decided to step out of my comfort zone. I started to draw with charcoal a portrait, and of pictures of Hunger Games. I learned a lot from looking at drawings by other students that were put up on the wall and tried incorporating their technique into my own drawing. The other day I saw a very sketchy piece of drawing and was very drawn to it (and I thought, wow, I could never do something that's even close to that). In my last assignment I tried relax and just sketch when drawing the characters, and it worked out! The result looks so much better than I thought it would be and I never knew that I could actually do some sketchy drawing and never expected that I would be so comfortable with it, even it was my first time!!! I felt as if I discovered I could speak a language that I didn't learn! How much of my own potential do I really know? Examples like this where I push myself out of what I already know to try doing what I have never done before are my favorite part of the class. I remember looking at other artists's work, and thought "wow, I'd never develop my own voice in art". Now I think I will, I got started in this class!

Besides, the class also helped me appreciate drawing more. Drawing is a great way to observe, analyze, and create. The essence of drawing, to me, is really similar to the essence of everything else that I'm passionate about - Math, entrepreneurship, music etc.