Abstract
The conceptual training of the twenty-first century artist tends to overlook academic instruction in skill-based drawing and aesthetics. Although these subjects are gaining international credibility in private institutions, they remain largely denigrated, only partially taught and even completely ignored in contemporary visual arts pedagogy. This study has endeavoured to investigate why this is the case, by reviewing literature related to the historical and contemporary teaching of drawing and aesthetics. The Secondary Victorian visual arts curriculum was analysed in proposition of an academic drawing and aesthetics curriculum, to be used as a strategy for building drawing skills and developing aesthetics sensibilities in secondary visual arts education. The qualitative research took the form of a documentary study, approached from an objectivist epistemology and an interpretivist framework, which was governed through an inductive thematic analysis. Both primary and secondary sources were used, which document and critically comment on the teaching of drawing and aesthetics from the time of Ancient Greece, through to the twenty-first century. The analysed data revealed that the subjects increase psychomotor development, historical awareness, visual analysis skills, emotional wellbeing and appreciation for discipline and craft, which ultimately enhance students’ creativity and lead to a widely applicable skill set. The results also justify that skill-based drawing and aesthetics can be taught in tandem with digital processes to improve visual literacy in the twenty-first century. However, further research is required to study the place of the subjects in primary education and how the competencies, techniques and capabilities learnt are transferable into career choices and life skills.
Full thesis: Skill based drawing and aesthetics in secondary visual arts education, by Emilio Longo