Drawing as Performance: Theatrical Games and Techniques for Visual Artists

Making connections between drama and drawing, Drawing as Performance introduces visual artists and designers to rehearsal techniques, theory, and games as ways of developing image-making and visual communication skills.

Drawing from the fields of theatre and anthropology, this book is full of practical exercises that encourage experimentation and play as methods of making expressive, communicative, and meaningful images. Ideas are adapted from the rehearsal room to the drawing studio, offering artists a fresh approach to translating experiences into visual images. Games and exercises are accompanied by demonstrations and responses from professional practitioners and visual communication students.

This one-of-a-kind book guides students and professionals alike to improvisation, self-expression, and reflective visual communication techniques in order to narrow the gap between the handmade image and inner experience from which artists draw their inspiration.

Orly Orbach is an award-winning artist who creates open books, performance graphics, and visual narrative landscapes using diverse interactive and participatory methods. Her work with theatre companies, performers, and leading creative arts organisations includes artwork for Punchdrunk’s The Fall of the House of Usher at Battersea Arts Centre, an artist residency commissioned by Punchdrunk at Fallow Cross, and artwork for the Barbican’s Shakespearean Celebration 'Play On'. Orbach has devised original workshops, projects, and modules for BA and MA students in higher education institutes across the UK, including Falmouth, UCA, Plymouth, Hereford, Norwich, St. Martin’s College of Art, Kingston, and Cass School of Arts.