‘Drawing with my Students’ – Development of Clothed Life Drawings among University Fine Art Students. Analysis of Selected Drawings by Second Year Students at Kenyatta University
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Date
2021
Authors
Kamau, Wango
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
East African Nature & Science Organisation
Abstract
Students of Fine Art are introduced to drawing in their first year and human figure
drawing in their second year. It is presumed that they have already had some element
of earlier exposure in other levels of prior studies. The objective of human figure
drawing or life drawing is to get the students to a level of applied skill where they can
be able to draw and utilize their skill in other aspects of self-expression in other
disciplines of Art. This is because life drawing is a fundamental requirement in all
disciplines of art from basic sketching to detailed paintings. This paper examines
selected work of students to determine the extent to which they are able to achieve this
objective within the unit prescribed duration of one semester. The paper also seeks to
determine whether the work produced meets the standard of drawing required at this
level which then enables the students to subsequently embark on other units of
drawing moving forward. This is critical since they are required to apply their life
drawing skills in other units as a matter of routine individual expression. In this regard,
if they are required to draw or paint an imaginative composition, they would be
expected to depict human figures which not only fit within the composition and are
well executed but also express the students’ ability to interpret themes and formulate
subject matter. For the purpose of these exercises and in order to focus solely on the
objectives of human figure composition and detailed development, the students were
confined to the use of pencil for the layout, shading and detailing of their work. This
is because pencil provides a wide range of manoeuvre for this kind of exercise. In this
series of drawings, the students used one particular female model which provided them
with the opportunity to visually interact with the individual model and be able to study
and observe how the life model adjusts to various poses. This was designed to help draw inspiration as well as make the drawing exercises methodical, enjoyable and
purposeful
Description
A research article published in East African Journal of Arts and Social Sciences
Keywords
Life Drawing, Model, Observation, Proportions, Pencil Shading, Anatomy
Citation
Wango, K. (2021). ‘Drawing with my Students’ – Development of Clothed Life Drawings among University Fine Art Students. Analysis of Selected Drawings by Second Year Students at Kenyatta University. East African Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 2(1), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.37284/eajass.3.1.291