Pencils and Pixels is an open teaching and learning resource aimed at helping design students to develop their drawing and rendering skills.
Through a series of demonstration films available on-line or for download to your iPhone/iPod Touch, you will be able to study at your own pace and in your own chosen environment. Each film has downloadable supporting materials which include: hard copy of exercise workshops; scaled plans and elevations for practice; podcasts of lectures and useful links to other learning resources. You can choose to work methodically through each lesson or dip in and out according to your personal needs. Each film has a written introduction, outlining its contents and providing a list of materials and the equipment that you will need to practice. Some of the equipment is quite expensive, but it will last for your whole design career. The films range from practising sketching and learning how to develop your drawing, through to the use of perspective ‘grids’, and more complicated measured perspective techniques. You can then learn how to render your drawings using a range of media, including computer software.
Some of the perspective drawing skills you will see demonstrated, are quite challenging to learn, drawing can be hard work! However, the most important lesson of all, is to learn how to ‘see’ perspective. This can only be done through practice, practice, practice….
To get started, go to the Overview page where you can find all the available materials. Each film can also be viewed on this website by hovering over the Overview menu link and choosing the film you’d like to watch. The films are best viewed full screen. You can download the films and accompanying materials from our university repository.
As an Open Educational Resource, we hope to make Pencils and Pixels of use to all design students. If you are aware of other useful resources or materials that we could link to please email Pam Locker at the University of Lincoln.