Drawing Studio

Professional Diploma Art & Design Programme
Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

Semester Two, 2007-2008

Is skill in observational drawing a talent we are born with, or is it something we can learn? 

The Drawing Studio course ran for ten consecutive Fridays, facilitated by Rustam Vania and me, with students from various design disciplines. The course explored biweekly themes: Landscapes (Scale/ Juxtaposition), Structures (Old/ New), Objects (Representation to Abstraction), Botanical & Entomology (Macro to Micro), People & Place (Contextual/ Reportage).

The course structure was designed to balance representation and documentation with reflection and interpretation. Students had one class on location, drawing and note-taking, then the following class was spent in the studio with exercises that used the previous week’s field drawings as a basis to respond, interpret, and personally express the theme or location. The studio culminated in an exhibition of field sketches, documentation and studio work, which was curated by the group. By the end of this course, many students showed a marked improvement in representation, perception, interpretation and use of mediums.

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