Another Approach

Leah C.

April 3, 2010 - 6:00 PM

I am taking drawing 233 again for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that I am required to take 2 drawing courses as a digital arts major. Another reason is that I need another course refresher to fine tune my illustration skills and the only drawing class available is 233. I find that there are many similarities in digital and fine arts and they can often become intertwined. Painting skills, color, composition, and the exploration of all aesthetics in the world of fine arts can definitely be applied to digital.

The first week of drawing class was rather interesting. I was recommended by my digital illustration professor to take Ronald Graff's class and boy was I glad to listen to him. Professor Graff teaches the course at 3pm. Somewhat of a grandpa image himself, Graff speaks softly and often jokes and gestures his arms over his head as he lectures. He is very funny and passionate about art. Through his experience over the years, I can tell from his ideology, that he has much wisdom to share. Apparently he doesn't grade. All students start off with an A in the class, and the only way to lower it is by not doing the work. Professor Graff told us that it is almost impossible to put a letter grade on art, since there really is no correct way to draw. Graff's belief is that a drawing that looks bad could in fact be very creative and when a well drawn piece is compared to it, the well drawn piece could lack the same creativity. I grew up learning that there is no one set definition to "good art." Graff is one of the first drawing teachers I know to acknowledge that.

The professor definitely stressed getting our creative juices flowing on Wednesday. Without telling us his lesson plan, Graff told us to draw two things. The first one is to color a large piece of paper black with charcoal. The second piece he asked to be filled with a pattern. I powered through 2 pieces of charcoal and I was done. My hands were dirty from rubbing the charcoal into the paper, and my finger nails are still stained with black dust. I made a nice swirly pattern, and thought that this might be a sort of warm up the professor wanted us to do. Apparently after everyone was done with their image, Professor Graff explained that we were then supposed to combine both pieces to make a new work of art that would be unrecognizable from the first.

Students tore their art work into pieces. We folded, layered and struggled to figure out what professor Graff meant. Many times he walked by me exclaiming that something was good. Other times he would become annoyed and wonder why the 3rd drawing looked similar to the first. I thought that I had changed something when I started ripping the edges of the pattern, but Graff came by and pointed out that I need to be more creative. He told me that I needed a couple, because I'm doing the same thing over over again. To truly be a a successful artist one has to be creative. This challenge helped me realized what I have done as well as helping me discover what I can accomplish. I look forward to learning from him. I have a hard time creating and developing outside of my comfort zone, and I believe that Professor Graff can definitely help me open up to new ideas.