David Gray’s workshop at CanUX 2008 in Banff provided the core elements needed to get people drawing so they can visually communicate concepts to others.
- We are taught to think that drawing is about making things look realistic.
- But drawing is really about getting ideas down on a page. Think of it as another vocabulary that enables discussion.
- Visual alphabet: the abc’s of visual communication are a way of breaking down drawing into basics so that everyone can do it.
- First kids use points and lines then stumble upon circles and ultimately forms within forms.
- Forms: one sided (circle), two sided (football), three sided (triangle), four sided (square), etc.
- These are the building blocks of drawing. If you can draw these basic shapes you can draw anything.
- Drawing is an abstraction of real life. It needs to convey the basic facts not every detail.
- Think about big shapes first then move on to little shapes.
- Connect things to a ground line to help get yourself going.
- To draw a head, think about where the nose would be pointed. Use a simple line for the nose to give the head dimension.
- Think about objects and what we need to connect them (numbers, arrows, lines, etc.)
- Linear perspective is just one of several methods of drawing.
- Cognitive perspective is not about how something appears from a point in space but instead how it appears to the mind. Kids draw this way because it is natural.