Ten Big Draws Tutorial…

In March 2020, at the start of the Covid lockdown, we embarked on offering a few friends, family and colleagues, the opportunity to participate in a virtual drawing tutorial course, to help us all manage and cope with these unforeseen times. Using WhatsApp, we set a weekly drawing brief with the intention that our students could participate at their own pace, upload their work for us – and other participants – to observe and offer comment and constructive criticism.

The idea was simple. Encourage people of all abilities to take up a pencil, pen, or any mark making tool, consider the brief, observe everyday objects and their surroundings, and make their own statement. Students worked at their own pace, some posted daily, others more sporadically. With students as far apart as Canada and Denmark, we eventually had to limit participation because of the limitations of our time in critiquing the drawings. The 10 week course offered different weekly briefs covering subjects such as: composition; tone; scale; texture; pattern; etc. We even merited a mention in the local newspaper. The ultimate reward however, was a shared sense of togetherness during the bleakness of the pandemic, plus an improvement in drawing skills of every student over the course of their participation.