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Great artists can always draw a crowd... - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

Great artists can always draw a crowd… thumb

Great artists can always draw a crowd…

Anyone who has seen me attempt anything beyond a stickman knows that drawing and painting are not amongst my talents. Fortunately, our tutors know their stuff and drawing has fed into many of our degrees over the years until it recently set up camp in a specialist degree of its own – our Drawing degree.
Becoming good at drawing is all about regular practice. You’ll learn to record the world around you through observation, and also draw from memory and imagination. You’ll also learn to use drawing to solve problems throughout the drawing Open courses.
Drawing was also one of our first Foundations units, which is a good springboard for many of our degree pathways, giving you the best starting point to develop basic drawing skills and begin to explore different ways of using materials and tools.
Good drawing will lay the foundations for the successful study of painting. Our Painting degree was around before our Drawing and Fine Art degrees. With the introduction of these separate routes, students can now really tailor their study to their own practice.
Much like my stickmen, my painting expertise doesn’t extend beyond a paint-by-numbers with my kids FYI. Worry not however – coming soon is our Foundations in Painting so if you need some grounding in the basics before degree level study, we’ve got you covered.
Accessibility is key at OCA and these are some of our most accessible options. While it would be nice to have a huge studio and materials as far as the eye can see, this isn’t practical for everyone and our courses account for that. Our Drawing and Painting courses have even been achievable for students as part of our offender learning programme, with minimal access to resources or materials. What our students can do with pens and paper alone puts my stickman to shame.
Every day we see creative solutions from students who are finding ways to achieve their artistic goals, whatever their circumstances. Why not join them?
This has been day twenty of #accessoca, join us again tomorrow.

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Posted by author: Lia Harness

One thought on “Great artists can always draw a crowd…

  • Positive words responded here by a photographer (took it up because I can’t draw). However, as my mother used to say; ‘there’s no such word as can’t’. She was right. The ability to express your ideas begins with notes and drawings. OCA is the way forward.

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