Drawing is at the foundation of the studio art curriculum here at William & Mary. It is the link that unites all our studio areas in theory and practice. These areas are architecture, ceramics, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. The ability to draw well is for an artist akin to the ability to speak clearly. Like any other serious endeavor, it can only be mastered through daily and structured practice. To this end the studio faculty developed a summer research project for rising seniors. Students were asked to make two sketchbook drawings every day over the course of the summer, resulting in approximately 180 drawings. Drawings were to take no more than thirty minutes and students were free to use their media of choice. The purpose of this project was to sharpen observational skills, instill good studio practice, encourage students to develop their own senses of subject and content separate from classroom assignments, and to provide solid groundwork for students to produce a high level of studio work during their senior year.

Senior art students in Professor Brian Kreydatus's ART 460 Senior Exhibition course each selected one of their sketches from the summer sketchbook project to be featured in an exhibit in Swem Library. Students were responsible for mounting and installing their own artwork and labels to learn about preparing their own artwork for exhibition.

Images of the exhibit are available from Swem Library on Flickr.

Artwork by Lizzi Alarcón, Leigh Bartenstein, Beatrice Chessman, Ethan Davis, Katie Fee, Sarah Henry, Abigail Moore, Kareem Obey, Zoë Powell, Haley Radvany, Brooke Stewart, Jared Velasquez, and Feicen Zhou.