We were asked to do the observational drawing at a certain location. However we planned to do it outside, but the weather was not good on that day, therefore we changed the location to Tate Modern Museum. I think it was a good change because we could observe people’s behavior and interaction better in the museum. At first, my friends and I chose to observe in the gallery, where we could see the expressions and movements of many people as they viewed the different works, and record them in drawings. However, later we went to the café because we could avoid some awkward situations and the people sitting in the café would stay longer, giving us more time to observe and draw.

The first part of the project we were asked to do was to simply draw people, without adding backgrounds or interactions. The advantage of this requirement was that we only had to focus on their expressions, movements, and clothing. This also helped us to practice our observational skills and drawing skills because it was difficult to draw in a short period of time so that the audience could tell what I have drawn. The reason for this was that I started out by going for details, and I didn’t finish the drawing after the people had left, so even I didn’t understand what I had drawn.

During the second part, we were asked to observe and draw a scene with people’s interaction. My friends and I chose to go to a children’s souvenir store in a museum because there were many people there interacting with children and it was all much more interesting to observe. This part is also for our last assignment, we had to choose a scene to draw a three-panel storyboard.
The scene that I choose for this assignment was the top right one in the second image, which was the interaction between the grandmother and the little girl.

I thought this activity was very interesting because I could closely see how other people interacted and acted, and I could express it through my own drawing. I could still recall the scene even after a long time when I saw those sketches I made, which made me realize the power of observational drawing.