Drawing and Color

UCLA Design Media Arts
2019 - 2020

Course Description:
This course covers the key concepts of color and drawing for design and media art. In this class, students will learn techniques for the creation of meaningful graphic images. Through fundamental concepts of drawing – including perspective, composition and texture – theories of visual communication drawn from semiotic, narrative, and critical discourses will be introduced.

Class Website︎

Class Syllabus︎


Selected Student Work

︎︎︎Virtual Class Exhibition in Roblox:
Over the course of the Fall 2020 quarter, students learned about the fundamentals of digital drawing, design principles, and color theory. From Bauhaus inspired abstract drawings to photo collages about current events, the students created new works using digital tools. For our final project, the class collaborated on building a 3D exhibition using the free game creation tool Roblox Studio. Each student created their own unique environment to stage their work.



︎︎︎Black and White Contrast:
Inspired by the Bauhaus basic course, students create 10 b&w digital abstract drawings based on an instrumental music they choose. Only using point, line and plane, the goal of this assignment is to explore the relationships around contrast.





︎︎︎Color Contrast:
After introducing basic color theory, students continue to work with the basic shapes - point, line and plane, and exploring different color schemes.


︎︎︎Past Dream:
Is there a dream you still vividly remember since childhood? Have you experienced recurring dreams? Write down a memorable dream. Your writing can be any style, a poem, haiku, a sentence, or one or two paragraphs. Distill your writing into consecutive scenes. Create 10 sketches to begin with and 10 digital drawings.




︎︎︎Political Collage:
Make a series of digital collages based on a contemporary socio-political issue or event, exploring the style of collage and appropriation.




︎︎︎Artists’ Books:
Students compile and arrange their drawings in the form of an artist book. They need to design, print and bind the book themselves. The book should contain a selection of the images they create from previous four assignments (around 40-50 images).