Welcome to the Power Drawing Newsletter – from the professional development programme of the Campaign for Drawing.

Digital cartoon workshop

The Campaign for Drawing held a free digital drawing workshop in partnership with City Lit, London on how to use state-of-the-art digital drawing tablets, provided with sponsorship from Wacom. International cartoonists Pat Blower and Matt Buck taught participants to create cartoon characters, develop facial expressions, express bodily movement and lay down colour. The day was a great success and we are looking at ways to extend our partnership with City Lit and offer further workshops.

Drawing Inspirations DVD

The new ‘Drawing Inspirations’ DVD offers ideas and support for anyone thinking about planning a Big Draw. It features the activities of a number of Big Draw award winners, Learning Revolution Festival projects and events working specifically with adults. If you would like to receive a copy of the DVD, please register your Big Draw event. The DVD was produced by Charles Mapleston of Malachite Films with editorial support from Eileen Adams.

For a preview of just one of the activities included, take a look at the work of Arts Action York on the Drawing in Action website.

Rhode Island, USA

A Power Drawing course held by the Campaign in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Pat Steir: Drawing Out of Line’ at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum drew an enthusiastic response from participants and formed part of their preparation for the first annual Big Draw Providence.

Big Draw lecture tour, Australia

Eileen will be involved in a lecture tour in Australia in September and October to support the Big Draw at institutions such as the National Art School in Sydney, the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, ArtPlay a children’s art centre in Melbourne and the Tasmanian Early Years Foundation in partnership with the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart.

Power Drawing courses UK

Eileen has been hard at work, running courses in Edinburgh, Warrington, Newcastle, Bexhill, Folkestone and Bolton for teachers and artists, as well as educators in museums, galleries, heritage sites and community organisations. They welcomed the opportunity to explore learning through drawing, to try out some drawing activities and to help each other to create action plans to develop their use of drawing as a medium for learning.

Arrange a course

If you would like to arrange a Power Drawing course or workshop for your school, education authority, organisation, community group or conference, please contact Emma Thatcher at the Campaign office emma@campaignfordrawing.org to discuss your needs. Power Drawing courses include: Drawing Across the Curriculum, Heritage and Built Environment courses and Big Draw courses and are for teachers of all key stages, PGCE students, cultural educators, artists and others who use drawing to promote learning, engagement and enjoyment.

It makes you think!

The preparation of another book in the Power Drawing series is underway. 'Drawing - it makes you think!' will focus on the use of drawing in secondary schools. The book will show that drawing is not confined to art and design, but is relevant for all subjects since different kinds of drawing prompt different kinds of thinking. Publication is planned for the autumn. 

Central Books online

Do you know you can now order Power Drawing books online easily through our new suppliers Central Books? See Power Drawing Publications for details.