THINKING THROUGH DRAWING: PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE

THINKING THROUGH DRAWING: PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE 33

simon betts

ing. While Wimbledon College of Art was piloting
some of the units of the level 3 qualification, I took
the UAL Further Education Chief Examiner on a
tour of the studios to see the work being produced.
We got into conversation with one tutor and I was
asking a lot of technical questions about the work-
ability of the unit they were teaching, the aims and
assessment criteria, as I wanted to know how it felt
to teach the unit. The chief Examiner turned to the
tutor and commented that they should not worry
about my questions. His view was that what this all
boiled down to is exciting teaching that motivates
and inspires the students to become confident with
drawing and enjoy drawing.
And he was right. The aim of good course design
should be to promote and release good teaching. To
support teachers in developing new teaching meth-
ods and new approaches, the University Awarding
Body has been running Drawing Master Classes
where teachers from schools and colleges are
invited to one-day drawing workshops that explore
project ideas. Furthermore, the annual Camera
Lucida conferences, that Prof Stephen Farthing and
I have been involved in setting up for the last two
years, have provided teachers and lecturers from
around the UK with a forum for debating issues and
ideas around drawing pedagogy.
At Wimbledon College of Art we are currently
working on a new academic plan that will put draw-
ing, and cross-disciplinary approaches to drawing,
at the very centre of what we do. With the possible
creation of a central drawing lab, we plan to embed
drawing in all our courses and stimulate cross
course dialogues for our Theatre Design and Fine
Art students where common or un-common ter-
ritories can be explored. Building this laboratory
further into our Post Graduate programmes, we
want to expand our research into STEM drawing,
thereby giving us a ladder of drawing experience
from school to further education to post-graduate
research.
By designing and developing the courses I have
described in this lecture, we are seeking to build
a framework of drawing education and drawing
pedagogy that not only puts the purpose of draw-
ing and its ability to cross disciplines and subjects
at the centre of how we learn and communicate, but
renegotiates the right of students to experience the
pure joy of drawing.
What innovative teaching can give to students
is an awareness of the relevancy of drawing to the

individual, and the confidence to use drawing as

part of their everyday relationship with the world.

What I really hope for is that the confidence to draw

in whatever method is relevant to the individual

student, not weighed down by believing that “good

drawing” belongs to one particular group of practi-

tioners, will ultimately allow our students to under-

stand their past and construct their futures.

Simon Betts

October 2011

References

Kovats, T., (2005). The Drawing Book. London: Black

Dog Publishing.

Farthing, S., (n.d.). MA Drawing Course Handbook.

Unpublished manuscript, University of the Arts

London.