Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2011 - 85

John Hofland's Drawing and Painting: An
Introduction to Basic Skills; Lessons for Beginning Technical Theater Students, available
on DVD and online, reminds us that hand drawing is something that we must never cut from
the curriculum. Hofland, who teaches design
and technical theatre at Gonzaga University in
Spokane, Washington, provides exercises that
follow the standard progression of a beginning drawing class: recognizing line, shape,
proportion of basic objects (or patterns), then
moving into more complex compositions, effective shading and contour, and finally covering general color media technique focusing on
watercolor media (gouache and aquarelle).
The instruction itself is pleasant and encouraging, and the beautiful examples of student
work from Odessa, Ukraine, got a gasp reaction
from my students. What they did not respond
to positively was the design of the PowerPoint
slides. The cover art on the disc case and label
are beautifully hand-drawn and painted dance
costumes. The examples for the lessons are also
lovely and interesting hand-drawn art or realistic photography of exotic objects. The beauty of
these and the creatively interesting assignments
and challenges only make the clip art and stock
PowerPoint slide design look more artificial and
"cheesy," to quote one student. The intent may
have been to make the presentation friendly and
casual, but design students are disturbed by the
discord between a lovely Indian textile pattern,
say, and a spinning neon-colored text and other
unnecessary decoration.
Directions for exercises
These "lessons" on DVD are a course intended
to be "given" by an instructor. Directions for
exercises are specific to the point of repeating
prior to each skill practice, "Your instructor
will play music so you can relax. Stand by your
desk and stretch upward." The disc's timing
control is increased by the format, a Flash version of a PowerPoint presentation that moves
slide by slide, showing line by line the copy exercises. The instructor would need to advance
the slides. For a group, I find this problematic.
One of the greatest sources of drawing anxiety
is, "Mine doesn't look like hers," and being shy
to ask for help. The converse is frustration on
the part of a more naturally skilled student waiting for everyone to catch up. As an instructor,

I would hesitate to use the course in class as
directed because of the inflexibility of the format. However, I would use the lesson plan. The
topics and skills covered are a comprehensive
course for developing basic drawing technique
and training the hand to better facilitate effective
illustration of a student's designs.
You can access the material on a tablet, so
if all your students have tablets and you want to
work this technology into your classroom, this
would be a viable option. The exercises still call
for pencil and paper to satisfy the traditionalist
in you. The DVD is not a plug-and-play, and I
had to try many tactics to find the exact conditions in which it works. But if you tinker with
it a little and use its better parts to supplement
in-class instruction, I believe you can achieve
positive results in improving students' illustration technique.
Reading the visual world
Ming Chen's Visual Literacy for Theatre offers
an argument why digital books may never replace real books. I have to guard my copy, as
my directing colleagues keep trying to make off
with it. People touch it when they come into the
room and start flipping through it uninvited.
This says to me that there is not only an interest
in the subject but a need outside the immediate
design curriculum for a book that is not specific
to any of the design disciplines.
Most of us have become frustrated over the
"fightin' words" of the design meeting: LITERAL!
OBVIOUS! INDICATING! GENERAL! As designers,
we are working directly against everything our
brains want to do. To be a talented designer,
you must learn to "read" the visual world differently. It is for this reason I think the title Visual
Literacy is so appealing. This thick volume is
packed with examples from all visual art disciplines: fine art, applied and decorative arts,
theatre art, as well as case studies from students
and professionals. The complete and thoughtprovoking examples in full color are one of
the book's greatest strengths. Chen's selections
consistently serve the content and supplement
well the frequently complex ideas put forth by
the text.
The style of the book's layout and content
organization is definitely that of a textbook.
Chapters are divided into distinct topics, and the
order follows the expected path that these ideas
f

2011

theatre design

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2011