Enhancing the Creative Organisational Skills of Learners through Still Life Drawing

Abstract

Drawing forms the basis for visual creativity in all the plastic arts. Freedom plays a key role in teaching and learning of visual creativity, but it has been observed that this freedom is not encouraged during still life drawing in most Ghanaian art institutions. The study aims to develop new knowledge that improves the organisational skills of learners and to further understand and use still life drawing as a means of creating new images from existing objects. The study employs grounded theory and content analysis by placing the conventional method of still life drawing against an unconventional approach to still life drawing. The study revealed that though the conventional method improves a learner’s perceptual skills and eye to hand co-ordination, it does not significantly enhance his/her creative organisational skills. It was also realised that a variation in the pedagogical approach proves further enhancement of the learners’ creative organisational skills. Purposive sampling was employed to select ten (10) students from the five departments of the Faculty of Applied Arts and Technology in the Takoradi Technical University. The study took the learners through a series of experiential still life drawing exercises. It revealed that the learners’ approach and output in drawing from scattered objects that have to be composed through drawing show superior creative organisational skills as compared to already arranged objects.