A contemporary pedagogy of drawing

ABSTRACT This article reviews 20 years of attitudes to drawing pedagogy and looks forward with a studioful of post-pandemic optimism. It reiterates the importance of drawing in art schools as the most direct and economic means of nurturing our intelligence of seeing. Throughout the period, neoliberal policies directing the UK higher education curricula towards market-oriented criteria of success have eroded the foundation of a visual arts pedagogy: the exploration of the perceptual and its communication through visual language; educative activities of wider import than market concerns. An articulacy in drawing – visualcy – is fundamental to human culture, let alone preparation for professional practice in the visual arts and design disciplines. A remedial pedagogy is proposed, structured upon the two fundamental theoretical bases of visual perception and visual communication, illustrated with students’ drawings and the author’s efforts to practise what he preaches.