Lesson 1: Getting Started - An Introduction to Journaling.
Drawing is fun and exciting. The benefits of drawing to every other facet of learning and communication are enormous. By learning to draw what we see we also learn to make connections and we learn to be able to describe what we other wise would not be able to express. We learn to solve problems and to think about areas of knowledge and ideas that would not otherwise have occurred to us. The purpose of the course is to get you started. I will explain the concepts behind the methods artists use and encourage you to learn to draw in a systematic way. The aim is to keep it simple. Often students become discouraged with drawing because they think it is hard. If you think it is hard - it will be. However if you follow these easy instructions step by step you will be surprised how easily you will develop a love of drawing. You will happily keep your daily journal and eventually succeed in developing the 'habit of creativity.' Training Your Creative Self: Five Tips for Ultra-Creativity. By Angela Booth.
Journaling is best if it is done daily. It is also easiest to remember if it is the first thing you do when you wake up of a morning. Start the day by recording a drawing of your dreams. Or if you haven't dreamt throughout the night, simply draw the first thing that occurs to you when you wake up.
How To Tackle This Course
- Don't try to read the course like a book.
- Read the section on Journaling and just start journaling.
Don't try to do all of the exercises all of the time.
Start doing exercises and just choose to fit in what you can manage.
As you begin to draw you will become curious ...read the theory that goes with the drawing at that stage.
- What you need to do next at each stage of the journey will become apparent. That is why it is a self-paced, self-directed course. NB* What it would be advisable for you to do, however, for the process to work is to devote at least 15 minutes a day to some aspect of the course, so that you stimulate your desire to learn.
Create your own comprehensive checklist of skills that you feel you still need to cover if you are to become proficient at drawing. Do this in your journal so that you won't forget anything.
It would be good.... to cover all of the elements of design that are mentioned in this course at some stage, if you are to feel confident as an artist.
Don't try to do them all at once.
But do check in with the list you are making...frequently... it will create your guidelines about what you need to cover eventually. It will become your motivation.
Print the course off and have it in a ring binder as you create your own ready reference.
That way you can add your own resources to it.
It will become thicker and thicker and thicker as you add to it over the years.
