Courses

From 40,000-year-old cave paintings to the latest digital symbols on our phones, drawings are a fundamental form of communication and creativity. As children, we have an innate ability to access creativity through drawing, but as we get older, we tend to judge what we do (usually harshly) and to leave art to the “experts.” Many of us find ourselves cut off from our own creativity. This course is designed to reignite a capacity for creativity through an exploration of drawing. The heart of the course will be a daily drawing prompt that can be responded to anywhere, using minimal supplies. Unlike in a studio course, our focus will not be on learning to draw or gaining technical proficiency; rather, we will focus on the process of drawing and how it can support creativity in our lives. At first, we will work on jumpstarting creativity, tapping into our imaginations, and circumventing the critical tendencies that can inhibit us. Later, we will experiment with different ways to make marks, observing the world and exploring the inventive possibilities of drawing. Our emphasis will be on engendering a sense of enthusiasm, curiosity, and fearlessness toward the creative process within a supportive online community. By the end of the course, students will possess some of the tools and experience necessary to maintain their own creative drawing practice.