Sketches. Selected Student Works from the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University

Author: Qiu Baiping (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Sketching, as the primary method for foundational training in representational art, has a history spanning hundreds of years. "Academic-style" art education has always emphasized sketching as a fundamental exercise, a tradition that continues to this day. The development of foundational art education in China's art education system is noteworthy. In Western developed countries, art education is quite relaxed, but even among the few compulsory courses, sketching remains at the top of the list. All of this underscores the importance of sketching in art and design education. The purpose of sketching is, first and foremost, to develop basic representational skills—the ability to create infinite space within a limited plane. Students observe natural forms with their eyes, experience the laws of natural beauty with their hearts, and analyze the relationships and orders between objective objects with their minds, thereby seeking self-expression through objective representation. By using hands and materials as mediums, they achieve the unification of subjectivity and objectivity. This is a form of thinking training, and also the fundamental method of all visual art creation processes.