Drawing by hand and in digital forms are required skills for any design discipline. The design student must understand what happens in the process of perceiving an object and the drawing of that object. I open the conversation about drawing starting with the most simple object: the dot. Channeling Paul Klee I demonstrate that the line is simply the dot talking a walk and that from that line any object, real or imaginary, can be represented.
I also introduce students to the theories behind perception. The perception of how light refracts inside the eye gives the eyes sight. The brain processes this perception based upon our prior knowledge of objects like this and what we know about representing perspectives of 3D objects with 2D media. Then students must consider the role of hand in what is both perceived and drawn. Synthesizing the eye-brain-hand into coordination is the goal of these drawing exercises. Starting and maintaining sketch practice is vital to students developing these coordination skills and later digital media are introduced to further develop their representation skills.
Sketching
With consistent practice sketching builds the eye-brain-hand coordination, but sketching practice also offers perception-training to “see” materials, reflections, shadows and light as they are in the world. Students begin by sketching small, hand-held everyday objects and then move to larger furniture pieces. Both the small objects and the furniture are readily available for students to sketch as they see. This is important at this stage since they are not ready yet to sketch without having the object in their sight. These exercises also help to get the students in tune to the scale of the body. The human body intimately interacts with these objects and so the objects must be designed for that user profile.
After studying these everyday objects, the focus of the studio moves to the scale of the building. Again, students must be able to keep the building or interior in their sight constantly checking between the image they see and the image they sketch. In these exercises our studio used our university building. As a historical building it offers many opportunities for students to work on their sketching as well as their rendering skills when sketching the architectural details of the building.
Rendering
Like sketching, rendering skills improve with practice. Rendering also requires some experimentation with different media to achieve the desired effect. In these rendering exercises emphasis is placed on the “realistic” qualities of the rendering techniques and media.
Collage
Collage can be thought of drawing with images. In these exercises students experiment with collage as visual storytelling. They are to use the collage technique to establish a context and sense of place for the site of their design projects.
Technical Drawing
Technical drawing is not just a drawing style, it is a way to conceptualize 3D space with 2D media. Students must build these thinking skills alongside the drawing skill. In these exercises students drew the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars. Inside the Cantina alcoves students designed lighting fixtures to illuminate the space. Using a popular film, students could watch clips from the movie depicting the site and then consider how to sketch it and draw it using technical drawing standards. As the original Cantina is dimly lit, students also had to think about how to best design their lighting and draw it on the RCP.
In these first technical drawing exercises it is important to limit it to hand-drawing. Later digital media are introduced, but at this stage students need to understand the mechanics of making a technical drawing before using computer means.
Graphic Design
After laying a foundation of skills for the students to use in both hand drawing and digital production, the students compose final posters using the concepts of graphic design. These final posters combine hand and digital work to convey the ideas of the students in the design project.
