Induction day: Getting to know you

Being the first day and not knowing many of the people around meant that there was a chance to meet new people and get to know each other; however I did not think that I was going to introduce myself through drawing the other persons hand. This task brought many including myself into the awkward zone and was overcome through laughter. I enjoyed this task as it gave me an opportunity to get to know not only someone's personality but on another level. On first thoughts I wanted my drawing of the hand to look lifelike although the daunting task of drawing on a large scale over come this idea. I quickly changed to a felt tip in the contrasting colours, yellow, pink and purple. I thought that the unrealistic colours would give the hand a new dimension and bring it to life rather than a plain pencil drawing. It also gave me a chance to show off personality within the drawing. I feel that this task gave me chance to get to know someone through the way that they drew their partners hand.

A new technique that I have never used was then brought up. I was to draw the back of my head. The simple task of grabbing a mirror or taking a picture was eliminated and I was left with nothing but a pencil and my left hand. Drawing in this style was very challenging and by looking around the room I felt everyone was on the same level. Once building up the courage to put the pencil to the blank paper, there were no limits to what I could produce. This style of Drawing really pushed me to look past the idea of keeping things to the way they are meant to look like. The pencil drew what I felt rather than what I saw and this was an eye opener into what kind of artist I really am.

If drawing a random person's hand wasn't weird enough, we were now lying on large rolls of paper drawing around each other. The task really took people out of their comfort zones and also helped to engage with each other rather than on our own. We drew around each other and then cut out the life size drawings which we then took and photographed in different places. It was very interesting to see what I looked like as a cut out piece of paper and although the shapes of some people were not entirely correct the task was an interesting effect which gave people a chance to get involved and get to know others on a different level.

 I really enjoyed the whole day and it was amazing to get to know many of the people within my group. This was a great way to get everyone involved and broke the ice very well. I can not wait to start the course.