Today is World Mental Health Day, which seems a good time to remind ourselves that drawing and other forms of creativity are valuable ways to help us create space in busy lives, pay attention to the world around us, express experiences and feelings and maintain a healthy physical and mental balance. Continue reading
Category Archives: Big Draw 2019
A Pocket Drawing Companion
The Pocket Drawing Companion booklet was distributed to students of the School of Art as part of our Big Draw celebrations.
It was jointly produced by members of the Drawing Research & Enterprise Group of the School of Art and the Centre for Learning & Teaching, both of the University of Brighton.
Draw something every day
Observational drawing Aim to find at least 5 minutes each day to draw something from direct observation. Don’t worry if you think you can’t draw because the point is not the finished product but the process of observing something carefully and in detail (some tips to help with this at the end of this page.)
This activity is good for developing your observational skills, or to make a record of key features of an object or place, while the focussed attention is also a calming, meditative activity. Continue reading
Create a mini-zine
A zine (pronounced ‘zeen’) is simply a small home-made magazine. The most popular kind is an 8-page mini-zine made from a single sheet of A4 paper, folded and cut as shown in the diagram below. All the pages are on the same side of the paper, so you can make them out of any spare handouts or the backs of letters. Continue reading
Timelines, story boards and comic strips
Al-Jawad M. Comics are Research: Graphic Narratives as a New Way of Seeing Clinical Practice. Journal of Medical Humantities. February 2013
Drawing gives us a way to explore and play with the sequence of events. Formats such as annotated timelines and storyboards (short comic strips) can help us visualise and communicate ideas about what has happened in the past or to project into the future. Continue reading
Mapping ideas, processes and places
You may already be familiar with mind mapping to plan essays or organise your lecture notes (see also Make your notes more visual). Mind mapping can also help you -individually or with fellow students – to build up a ‘bigger picture’ of complex systems or subjects. Unlike text which is read in a linear sequence, mind maps and diagrams allow a great deal of information to be taken in simultaneously. Continue reading
Colouring and copying
These activities are not just for primary school children – though there’s a good reason why we did them at school. The physical act of copying and/or colouring helps to reinforce and fix key information in your memory. Continue reading
