Welcome to Blind Drawing School

A fictional prospectus for a proposed school. There are no enrolled students, teaching staff, premises or accredited courses.

Blind Drawing School teaches blind and partially sighted people to draw.

Not to appreciate drawings made by other people. Not to commission pictures from artificial intelligence. To draw pictures of their own.

Our students use code pencils instead of conventional pencils. They draw lines, circles, faces, houses, animals and landscapes. They learn proportion, perspective, composition and colour. As their skills develop, they will progress from drawing to colouring and painting.

The pictures are real. Sighted people can look at them. They can be printed, published, exhibited or shared with friends.

The student doesn't have to see the picture to have drawn it.

Drawing Foundations

Our first course is inspired by the approach of the Royal Drawing School's Drawing Foundations programme.

Eight classes introduce students to drawing from observation, learning from other artists, representing familiar places, and drawing from memory and imagination.

The teaching methods are different.

Students work with an AI drawing tutor and a code pencil. They describe and specify what they want to draw, construct it through code, and receive feedback about the resulting image.

They can examine the geometry, ask questions about the composition and change individual elements without starting again.

Every student maintains an accessible sketchbook containing their drawings, instructions, revisions and reflections.

A student who wants to draw a house learns to draw a house. The AI doesn't simply produce a beautiful house on their behalf.

And a badly drawn house is perfectly acceptable. That's what learning to draw looks like.

Eventually, the school intends to offer drawing and painting programmes inspired by Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 of the English art curriculum.

The school welcomes beginners. Previous experience of sight is not required.

We don't promise that everyone will become a great artist. We offer the opportunity to learn.