February 7th, 2011

When I arrived at Penninghen I knew only very few things about drawing. I didn’t expect it to be so intensively taught — about 8 hours per week.

After five months of clumsy experiments with charcoals and acrylics, I hopefully managed to improve my drawing skills.

I have summarized below the 3 things that helped me to perceive drawing not only as an aesthetic tool, but also as a catalyst for the creative process:

1. SKETCHING HUMAN FIGURES IS IMPORTANT

Why? Because drawing human figures teaches good observation, it makes you understand forms and how they exist in the visual world. By practicing you’re able to really see the human as it is. Also as an art director or designer your sense of harmony and proportions get better.

2. SIMPLE IS COMPLEX

Simplicity and complexity get easier to grasp in the process of drawing. The image bellow shows the necessary steps to get  form a sophisticated object to a simple icon. simplicity implies understanding the essence of a complex form.

3. DRAWING IS THINKING.

Milton Glaser says; “It is only through drawing that I look at things carefully”. Drawing help to clarify you initial ideas so that you can perceive problems that you will run into. it’s an initial approach before you build a prototype.