{"id":78667,"date":"2019-12-02T11:01:04","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T16:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=78667"},"modified":"2022-09-26T10:28:45","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T14:28:45","slug":"drawing-interest-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2019\/12\/02\/drawing-interest-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Drawing interest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Megan Warnimont, who is majoring in medical laboratory sciences at Wright State, is taking Beginning Drawing to help her notice small details on microscopic slides. (Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

Taking a drawing class has been eye-opening for Megan Warnimont, a medical laboratory sciences major at Wright State University.<\/p>\n

Warnimont, of Miller City, decided to take Beginning Drawing because she enjoyed drawing when she was younger and needed more hours to become a full-time student. She believes the drawing class will help her in her field of study by enabling her to pay more attention to small details on microscopic slides.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd my understanding of negative versus positive space has helped me to figure out how different stains work on samples as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Art and Art History<\/a> is appealing to non-art majors across campus to consider taking Beginning Drawing in order to sharpen their visual observation skills and change the way they think \u2014 abilities that can be used in everything from criminal justice to medicine to military affairs.<\/p>\n

There are currently four sections of Beginning Drawing and Beginning Drawing II classes, with about 20 students in each section. But there is a capacity to add more classes.<\/p>\n

Glen Cebulash, professor and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, said the course may appeal to students who took drawing or had an interest in it in high school and are looking for an elective course.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person who is not necessarily interested in art may in fact be very interested in the kinds of skills they can develop \u2014 the awareness, concentration on their visual field,\u201d said Cebulash. \u201cThe foundations of drawing are going to be beneficial for them in ways that don\u2019t necessarily have a lot to do with art.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea is novel but not unique.<\/p>\n

For example, New York City police officers have gone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to take \u201cThe Art of Perception.\u201d The course was designed to fine-tune their attention to visual details, some of which might prove critical in solving or preventing a crime.<\/p>\n

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Jeremy Long, associate professor of art, said Beginning Drawing can help students better understand the structural elements that make up their surroundings.<\/p><\/div>\n

Cebulash said drawing helps students see unconventional connections such as observing how a hand connects to the arm of a chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in walking into a crime scene or a place where there is evidence, you are making visual connections between things that don\u2019t necessarily connect logically. You have to be able to see unconventional connections,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to imagine that there is any discipline that wouldn\u2019t benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeremy Long, associate professor of art, said the class should help students better understand the structural elements that make up their surroundings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a way of thinking about things. It\u2019s a way of seeing things,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s exciting about it \u2014 it turns into something that\u2019s unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the class exercises is having students look at a famous painting and try to sketch it, using the pencil as an eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy drawing it, the student discovers all of these things they did not previously see,\u201d said Cebulash. \u201cWhat they end up discovering in the paintings is invaluable. The pencil forces you to slow down. It forces you to observe things that your eye ordinarily would just glide over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students are taught to apply critical thinking to the visual field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do here is more akin to critical looking,\u201d said Cebulash. \u201cIt really changes the way you see things.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, students drawing objects are taught to observe the spaces between them, which change as the artist moves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the type of thing that most people don\u2019t pay any attention to at all, but it is particular to visual arts education,\u201d said Cebulash. \u201cIt requires you to not only look closely, but to see the spaces in between \u2014 the way a musician pays attention to the silence between the notes. The silence is as important as the sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his new book, \u201cStick Figures: Drawing as a Human Practice,\u201d design historian D.B. Dowd says drawing should be seen as a tool for learning above all else, a way of observing the world. Dowd, a professor of art and American culture at the Washington University in St. Louis, told Quartz business news that drawing brings out our better qualities as people, forcing us to slow down, be patient and pay attention.<\/p>\n

Cebulash said the courses teach the beginning of the drawing process so non-art majors \u2014 even if they might be a little out of their comfort zone \u2014 should not feel intimidated being in a class with art majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the best students I\u2019m working with are engineering students or students who have never drawn before,\u201d said Long. \u201cThey seem to focus wonderfully.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Offered by the Department of Art and Art History, the Beginning Drawing course will appeal to students studying everything from criminal justice to medicine to military affairs. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":78687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,4859,725,747,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-fine-and-performing-arts","category-home-news-sidebar","category-liberal-arts","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78667"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78703,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78667\/revisions\/78703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}