"Design software weakens classic drawing skills"

**gaijin** · April 5th, 2006, 11:05 PM

Ripped from today's headlines:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/04/05/a...eut/index.html

**Ilaekae** · April 5th, 2006, 11:55 PM

OMIGAWD! I'm so SHOCKED! SHOCKED, I say!

Did I say I was shocked? Yep. This article just blew me away...can you just imagine the amount of research and years of careful study that they must have gone through to determine that this was occuring? JEEEEEE-zuz!

Did I mention I was...oh...yeah...sorry...

**S.C. Watson** · April 5th, 2006, 11:57 PM

"U.S. art students spend so much time toying with computer graphics these days that many wind up without needed drawing skills, university instructors say."

DOH!

**H.Evans** · April 5th, 2006, 11:59 PM

haha...

yeah and no...

though i do know a design student who will most likely draw alot less than now as he loves Illustrator CS2's "live trace" as a medium rather than a tool...

**gaijin** · April 6th, 2006, 12:40 AM

adobe stoled my drawring skillz!1

yeah, not exactly news to us I suppose

This is on CNN.com after all.

It is true though that many students use programs as crutches instead of working though design and drawing problems the hard way, and that they're seeing more of this in art schools. You gots to put in those pencil miles...

**timpaatkins** · April 6th, 2006, 12:43 AM

In my graphic Design pfogram at one of the top schools in sweden, I was the only one who could even remotly draw. The rest had no interest whatsoever in putting a pencil to paper. They where quite content in copy pasting and tracing other peoples stuff. God damn my blood boils when I think of it. Same goes for layout and type. Theyd see something in a magazine and just rip it of for the assignements.
Of course we had some genuine talent, and I managed to get one of the girls to come with me to a nude drawing class in the evenings, but that was about it.
We had one dude who we thought did some great illustrations, he was winning competitons and getting stuff published. Turns out after about a year and a half that hed just been scanning in Ashley Woods stuff (among others) and using them as his own.

**tensai** · April 6th, 2006, 02:06 AM

funny that the story starts off about architecture schools. i found out recently it goes beyond drawing; with students in architecture school not learning how to make physical models anymore. they work in a 3d app and do curve-only architecture and then send it off to their laser guided 3d plotter. almost no architecture offices have these cause theyre so fucking expensive. so these kids graduate at the these top notch universities with their top notch fascilities and dont know how to design with a model, let alone do some quick alterations to one in a design meeting or whatever.

by all means learn how to use new technology but to make yourself depend on it in this way is unbelievable.

**jetpack42** · April 6th, 2006, 02:27 AM

good, it's just making it easier for everyone with real skills.

**Pixeldragoon** · April 6th, 2006, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by jetpack42

good, it's just making it easier for everyone with real skills.

Quoted for truth.

**darth massacre** · April 6th, 2006, 10:28 AM

Just don't tell the Chinese about it.

From what I understand, China's "art" schools do not teach drawing, painting and so on. They teach software.

**DavePalumbo** · April 6th, 2006, 12:13 PM

Drawings by up-and-coming artists can be bought for about $1,000.

or less

**Bruce Jensen** · April 6th, 2006, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by gaijin

adobe stoled my drawring skillz!1

yeah, not exactly news to us I suppose

This is on CNN.com after all.

That this thought has made it to MSM at all bears some significance to me at least. Who'd have thought that this would be on anyone's radar other than artists?

**tensai** · April 6th, 2006, 07:28 PM

Originally Posted by darth massacre

Just don't tell the Chinese about it.

From what I understand, China's "art" schools do not teach drawing, painting and so on. They teach software.

im really curious about that, because quite a lot of the chinese art that i've seen you can see these guys are really skilled. i always thought they got mad drilled in hyper social realism propaganda style and had very solid painting skills. but i dont know if thats just the occasional genius learning way more than the system gives him, or if thats just more or less what everybody is expected to deliver.

**Avarwen** · April 6th, 2006, 07:36 PM

That means more room for traditional artists. Which is a very good thing.

**Marko Djurdjevic** · April 6th, 2006, 07:48 PM

Oh Snap! Really??? Holy shit! I'm afraid now.

**Redder** · April 6th, 2006, 09:43 PM

*** Muahahaha, us classically trained fine artists will rule the world! ***

**Chingwa** · April 6th, 2006, 10:12 PM

Yeah I'm with Tensai, I was under the impression that China has a large stake in training traditionally skilled artists... such as in the city of ShenZhen... http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english...ent_480345.htm

**darth massacre** · April 6th, 2006, 10:42 PM

China's top tier art school still rely on hardcore traditional skills. My roommate's dad, uncles, grandpa and basically the whole family teaches at Guangzhou Academy of Art and when he explained how brutal their "selection" criteria was, it scared the pants off me. (Basically, 20000 art submissions laid out in 1 big indoor hall, 2 professors walking the line with brooms. Whoever didn't get swept away gets in....and they're all good)

However there are many new schools - especially animation schools - that offer courses mostly in software because they don't yet have the experienced professors to come in and review their syllabus yet. I'm pretty sure they'll catch up over the years when they get more experienced animators going home to review the syllabus. When that happens, it will be really scary.

**tensai** · April 6th, 2006, 11:18 PM

[QUOTE=darth massacre]China's top tier art school still rely on hardcore traditional skills. My roommate's dad, uncles, grandpa and basically the whole family teaches at Guangzhou Academy of Art and when he explained how brutal their "selection" criteria was, it scared the pants off me. (Basically, 20000 art submissions laid out in 1 big indoor hall, 2 professors walking the line with brooms. Whoever didn't get swept away gets in....and they're all good)QUOTE]

haha - would love to see that sometime.

**CCThrom** · April 7th, 2006, 08:51 AM

drawing on paper can be frustrating, forcing concentration, introspection and revision as an idea or vision takes shape

Damn you, paper and pencil! Damn you to HELL!! Where's my Ritalin?

**Professor Az** · April 7th, 2006, 10:39 AM

This is news? Originally a card-carrying member of the drafting community, I've known this since... well, since 1980 or so. When they came out with the very, very first version of CAD, I knew that this would be the end result.

Good thing my bosses don't know I'm still doing most of my work by hand, huh? Even at this age, I can still crank out technical drawings faster by hand than some of these kids and their evil little computers.

Traditional mediums forever!