I’m taking a course in Drawing and I want to share the experience of leaving the world of black and white and starting to live in a world of color.

The great thing about taking Art at UMass Boston is that it’s different from art you take in high school, where the teacher wants you to draw in a certain way thinking that you have the skill or creativity when you don’t really. Professor Horn is very patient and can give you guidance and encouragement while taking the class here. He was patient with all the students by telling them to understand perspective and focal points.

He didn’t only help in that aspect, he even taught us what it means to draw in a way that helps improve our skills. Remember the class is a beginner’s course, so even though you may want to sketch and do all the hard work, he takes you a step back and wants you to do something different. Professor Horn teaches you the correct way to unlock creativity in a way that is helpful and allows you to open up your mind from square one. Before I took art here, all the art courses I took were either too simple or too complex. One art class I took told me that my assignment was to sketch in a notepad for an hour per week. However, I didn’t know how to do it or what I could sketch for an hour. It was so difficult for me that eventually I had to withdraw.

Here in this class, we’re told to start creatively from square one and take it step by step rather than jump to the professional level. In Drawing I, there’s a simple understanding of dimensions and you begin by working with the colors of black and white and then light gray. The first day I took this class, Professor Horn taught us that we should try to capture the light and dark side of an object we had in class and try to sketch the outline and little details we have as a blueprint. Then, we only used charcoal to do the rest of the sketch and soon it taught me how to draw perspective and the different shades of color in any object, mostly the shadows and the light side. The next class we had was the same thing, but instead we had to bring in an object that represents us and it can’t be as lame as a phone or smaller than an orange. So I decided to get creative and find my object.

Originally I wanted to capture my intelligence, but a Rubik’s cube was too small and hard to draw the shadows and then I wanted a textbook, but that was easy. Suddenly, I realized that the fact that I’m playing basketball and that I want to be part of the NCAA gave me an idea. I soon brought it into class though I was beginning to doubt that the basketball was complex enough. However, Professor Horn said that’s what he wanted and that it was the right size and correct dimensions. Soon I realized how easy it was to draw it and at first I thought he wanted us to do what we did last class, but really he wanted us to use the gray to capture a more in-depth detail of our drawing. Eventually I realized what he wanted and from there I see how fun art can be at UMass Boston.