Here is our agenda for todays session.
Drawing is a common and powerful means to convey ideas, but is often hampered by a perceived “inability to draw”. In this session, participants practice their drawing skills and explore strategies to apply them to their teaching.
What are some of the benefits to “going visual” with hand drawn visuals?
Some things to explore:
- Coloring (for academics) !: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/sites/doodling/index.html
- Faces in things: https://twitter.com/faceinthings
Squiggle Birds
YOU CAN DRAW! (well enough)
Squiggle bird instructions: http://edmedia.tlc.sfu.ca/dropin/index.php/2017/01/20/gv1/
Monsters
Forget what you know about “good art” and “bad art” and just create. That’s the advice cartoonist and newly-minted professor Lynda Barry gives her students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She’s learned from years of exploring art with “non-artists”, why too many adults resist their own creative impulses, and why it’s a good thing if you still draw like a kid.
Barry, L. 2015. CBC Canada: Lynda Barry dares you to draw like a kid. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/schedule-for-friday-may-8-2015-1.3065520/cartoonist-lynda-barry-dares-you-to-draw-like-a-kid-1.3065525
Drawing Monsters instructions: http://edmedia.tlc.sfu.ca/dropin/index.php/2017/01/29/gv4/
Practice
Working on the basic building blocks of visual language will improve your ability to be creative and communicate in creative ways. In “The Essentials of Visual Language”, we can try a series of assignments that explore the fundamental building blocks of visual work, including; lines, shapes, faces and text.
- Visual Thinking Workbook: https://leanpub.com/visualthinkingworkbook
- David Grey – “Visual Thinking basics” and “How to know What to draw” (from visual thinking page)
- Doodle revolution video collection.
Graphic Jamming
Check out the Noun project: https://thenounproject.com
Building a Global Visual Language from Noun Project on Vimeo.
Icon Jam Instructions: http://edmedia.tlc.sfu.ca/dropin/index.php/2017/01/26/gv2/
Drawing the frame
An activity which exemplifies this “representation of time in space”, was recently shared by Dr. Nick Sousanis called “Grids and Gestures”. In his blog post, Dr. Sousanis invites the internet to join him in a “non-representational comics-making exercise” which he has been doing in his workshops and recently published article.
Grids and Gestures instructions: http://edmedia.tlc.sfu.ca/dropin/index.php/2017/01/30/gv6/