Thinking Through Drawing

In May 2016, I attended the European Access Network Conference at University College Dublin, as a Retain, Achieve, Succeed staff researcher at the University of the Arts, London. I presented six UAL students' drawings in the conference exhibition, and also delivered a mini-Thinking Through Drawing workshop as part of the conference parallel paper sessions. The RAS research is in collaboration with Chris Koning, and examines access to drawing skills: developing confidence, communication and creativity, and hopes to make useful recommendations in order to support pedagogical investigation .

The European Access Network conference exhibition was presented in collaboration with The National College of Art and Design Dublin (NCAD). NCAD exhibited artwork from current students and graduates engaged in the NCAD’s Access Programmes. Our contribution comprised of 21 process drawings or sketches by six University of the Arts, London students who have attended our Thinking Through Drawing workshops, offered by Academic Support at UAL. These drawings are considered to be ‘thinking’ drawings, demonstrating creative process and design development, and the relationship to outcomes on creative courses. This exhibition was presented in the spacious and central foyer at University College Dublin, where all the conference participants were able to spend time with the work during every conference break (coffee and lunch). (A list of names and information about each student below.)

I delivered a Thinking Through Drawing workshop as part of the conference parallel paper sessions to a group of about 25 conference participants. The participants were not necessarily from an Art and Design background, so this was used as a 'thinking space' for delegates to consider issues of creativity and inclusion; how drawing has 'equalising possibilities' for/across educational groups. This workshop aimed to open up art education pedagogies for wider educational groups across different levels. I have facilitated drawing/creativity workshops in the past for diverse groups including urban planners, librarians, public sector practitioners, architects, landscape architects, film production design students and primary school children and teachers. It was very useful to discuss a European and international perspective on such initiatives with delegates, who, contributed to my thinking about my study, and my relationship to access to education.

Student feedback from the Thinking Through Drawing Academic Support workshops over 2015-2016 suggests that students, regardless of background, gender, race or culture, sometimes feel compromised by lack of drawing skill when it comes to realising their ideas and potential on creative courses. Through informal discussion with conference delegates, I learned that most were intrigued and surprised by the fact that our research is about access to a skill. This seems to be perhaps unique to art and design education? For example, students in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) would not gain a place in higher education, if they lacked basic skills, yet in Art and Design education this is not the case, there are many criteria for gaining a place on a degree course and some students feel ill equipped from the very start, with no correlation to background (class, race, sex etc).

I wanted to share my most vivid experience of the conference: I attended the parallel paper session at the end of the conference, also a mini-workshop entitled “The Role of Third Level Education in Peace Building” by Raul Araujo, Researcher and Consultant, GAPS, Brazil. This was participatory presentation where he designated a table in the centre of the room as the "centre of the universe” and he asked everyone to position themselves in relation to this centre, in response to the question about their access to higher education and family background and support. I considered my family, childhood and upbringing, and thought of the many conversations I had had during the conference, with people from different backgrounds and different access opportunities. I have had no barriers to education, my parents and grandparents are university educated, and it was always an expectation that myself and my sister would be too. As far back as I can remember, I’ve heard stories about my grandparents’ life as refugees in Europe during World War II, and their ability to move continents and set up a new professional life because of their education. I was told, education was something that stays with you, somethings that cannot be taken from you even if you lose your home, your country and possessions. Considering the people I had had dinner with the previous night, all first generation access to university, and their struggles, with family, culture and finances, I positioned myself about a step away from the designated table which was the “centre of the universe” while I saw them standing further away from the table, some by the wall at the very edges of the room. It was a very powerful moment, there were about 30-40 people in the room all standing at various distances from this central table, some shared their reasons and personal story. The reason I stood a step away from the table, was financial. I did not come from a wealthy family, which perhaps could have been the only barrier to a “better’ school. This was a valuable lesson, one I had previously not given much thought .

A big thank you to Finola McTernan from NCAD and the EAN conference organisers, to Dr Kate Hatton for her guidance, and to University of the Arts, London for funding my participation at the conference. Special thank you to the students who graciously contributed their drawings to the exhibition. Image credits: Vincent Hoban and UAL student drawings exhibited at University College Dublin.

The following students graciously contributed their drawings to the exhibition:

Sharon Bertram
MA Fine Art Digital
Camberwell College of Arts
"One drawing is inspiration taken from a necklace stand on a shopping trip in Spain. I am now using this for my research into the black female form. Two other drawings are from a walk near a beach where I picked out a stone and drew around it in it, then developing ideas for creating a vessel using the stone outline. The final drawing is the exercise I did during the 'Thinking Through Drawing Workshop' where I talked through and sketched my project idea."

Alexandra Boutsi
BA (HONS) Design Management and Cultures
London College of Communication
"These sketches in the little red notebook, are from my week in Milan during the Salone del mobile furniture fair. I was quite fascinated by the city's architecture and marbles used on the facade of the buildings. During car rides in the city, I was trying to capture through sketching, details from the pattern and form of the buildings.

Then the other two images are exercises of expanding techniques and possibilities in drawing, that we did together in class. It was very exciting for me to realize that there are really endless possibilities of drawing your inspiration from anything."

Naroa Perez Iguaran
BA Photography
London College of Communication
"Why or for what do I draw? It's said that bad painters become photographers because they didn't have good hand skills, the machine can represent reality better than a hand and after that, abstraction / cubism / expressionism. I draw to relax, there is no expectation. I have no skills, never tried, I just take a pen and doodle-draw or paint abstract figures with no relation to reality, even though people try to find a link, I feel there isn't one. Reality doesn't exist. Truth doesn't exist. The thought is what is there on the paper. A friend told me that my drawings were puzzles, and it did make sense because what I have in my mind while drawing is BALANCE. A puzzle that has to be completed by balance.

Drawing makes me focus / concentrate when others are speaking. English is not my language, so my brain needs to focus on it when listening. Drawing makes me focus on the language and makes me remember all the information and links between what I am listening to and the information stored in my mind. So puzzles and balance – focus and linking information – and... relax. I get relaxed when making lines, my brain becomes free in a way, and the feeling is of becoming relaxed from other thoughts or stresses related to daily life."

Lassi Järvelä
BA (Hons) Fashion Menswear
Central Saint Martins

Monica Sanchez Lago
BA (hons)Spatial Design
London College of Communication
"This was a drawing done during the Thinking Through Drawing workshop, communicating current work to a partner."

Fei In Leong
MA Visual Arts: Book Arts
Camberwell College of Arts