Drawing, Idea and Method

For a while after I’d graduated from the Ontario College of Art, I tended to view my time there with a somewhat jaundiced eye. I’d look back at my 3 years in the oft-mocked department of General Studies — a create-your-own type of programme which has since morphed into the rather chic “Interdisciplinary Studies” — and wonder what I really got out of the school.

Quite a bit, as it turns out. Along with the colour theory class that was part of Foundation year, and all the wonderful studio courses in the Photography and Printmaking departments, one of the best courses has to have been David Chavel’s “Drawing, Idea and Method”. In fact, I draw upon the lessons learned from David nearly every day in my job as a graphic designer.

(Point of irony: While at OCA I completely eschewed the Communications and Design department in favour of “purer” courses, all the while maintaining that I was NEVER going to be a commercial artist.)

“Drawing, Idea and Method” was an exceedingly simple, yet effective class. We learned to generate visual ideas through exercises in drawing and collage. Starting from basic subjects — a still life, for example — we’d create dozens upon dozens of little 8″x8″ drawings. The lesson here was quality THROUGH quantity. By pushing through and not stopping when it seemed as though you’d come up with the best drawing you could create — by challenging yourself to continue — more often than not there WAS a better drawing (or germ of a drawing) down the line. Sometimes it was the twentieth or thirtieth piece that did it, when you’d felt like you really hadn’t anything more interesting to express about that rock and leaf still life.

And these were basics that would apply to nearly any visual discipline, echoed by some of my other instructors. In photography, for example, we were urged to take as many photos as we could of a given subject, and then take some more. This notion, of perseverance in pursuit of visual ideas, was probably the best lesson I learned at OCA.

I witnessed a good friend of mine, Paul Matless, employ this same technique in painting, but on a much grander scale. Through one evening, Paul worked acrylic on an immense canvas, building amazing paintings — one on top of the other — but each great piece only lasted for a while before it was obiliterated by the next idea. By the end of the session, I’d seen at least four really good paintings rise and fall. The only problem with Paul’s way is that his gems would remain buried.

The other great lesson learned from David Chavel was the importance of process. When attempting to conjure visual ideas, we started small. We’d be presented with a still life and told to draw only the contours. Next we would create a shaded drawing. Then a black and white collage. Then a monochrome collage. Then a colour collage…and so on, and so on. It’s a process that I use to this day when working on logo design.

So thanks, David, for your lessons in “Drawing, Idea and Method”. Even if I am using them for graphic design today. Maybe one of these days I’ll find some use for that Experimental Arts class I took in Second Year, “Formalist Investigations”.