Observational drawing and recording have become increasingly popular in recent years as a way for visual communicators to record their environment and interrogate and investigate issues, locations, and subjects in a journalistic way. The more you practice observing and recording what you see, the more your analytical and technical skills will improve, which will result in increased confidence and awareness of visual language.
Tasks
- Select a televised news programme that you can re-watch several times. Select one news story to concentrate on. A fundamental aspect of drawing is seeing. Spend some time sitting and observing, taking in the programme without drawing.
- Lay a large piece of paper (the biggest you can find) on the floor in front of the screen. Re-watch the news programme, concentrating on the information as it develops, and use drawing materials to draw what you see and hear. The following prompts will help you:
- Draw the story as a single sketch.
- Draw the story as a series of sketches.
- Make a blind drawing – don’t look at the paper.
- Make a blind drawing – don’t look at the screen.
- Watch the programme again and add notes and annotations to the same paper. Highlight aspects that particularly interest you. The following prompts will help you:
- Make a note of all keywords.
- Record Snippets of conversations in writing.
- Summarise the story in one word, three words, and a sentence.
- Now, focus on a theme you identified in the previous task. Is what you are observing and drawing appropriate to that theme? Does it explore/challenge/interrogate that theme? Draw elements associated with this theme (people, objects, environments, etc.) for 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds, 10 seconds, and 1 second. Repeat for each element.
- Re-watch the article, this time concentrating on its composition as a designed program. Select an object or person. Observe the subject boundaries, where it starts and finishes, negative space, and everything else. Observe the visual relationship this creates as a shape and form to be drawn. Consider how movement affects what you document and how your mark-making can imply that movement is happening.
- Draw around a subject (person/object/etc.)
- Draw everything but the subject.
- Draw the movement of people/objects within the screen. Are they central? Do they appear and disappear throughout the programme?
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- Additional task: Repeat this task in a physical environment. Compare this experience to your current sketches. Annotating Similarities and Differences. Write a short paragraph about the difference between recording from a screen and recording in person. Has it affected your drawings? Your experience?
This assignment is taken from the book Graphic Design School.