Is developing drawing skills at an art school worth it? Can a person gain the same insight and develop their skills to the same or even better level on their own?
Is developing drawing skills at an art school worth it? Can a person gain the same insight and develop their skills to the same or even better level on their own?
As a lecturer in a design department at an art school in London I can’t stress the importance of drawing enough.
If someone has a genuine interest in drawing and is motivated to learn and improve through self directed study then they can become in my opinion good at communicating through drawing. It is important though that by undertaking modules or projects based predominately around visual communication/drawing then the student is challenged in a variety of ways that they would not neccesarily do within self taught projects.
As a lecturer it is important that I ‘push’ the students outwith thier comfort zone and by doing so challenge their perceptions of what drawing is and how it can be used.
For a lot of people I work with one of the main stumbling blocks is confidence, being confident to make mistakes and learn from them. I hear all the time the phrase ‘I can’t draw’…. everyone ‘can’ draw but not with the same skill level or ability.
In an art school environment there is a knowledge base and expertise that students can ‘draw’ upon. A lot of this is not found in books and it does depend on the person teaching or leading the sessions. It is important to encourage the student to develop an individual approach to their visual communication which is not neccesarily something that can be developed through reading books, self taught artists and designers tend to copy others in my experience and do not develop a personal voice.