The February 15 deadline for those interested in applying as a freshman has since past. In the last post we caught you up with the review process and all the required application materials we look at on our end. In particular we have noticed a fascination with the three required drawings, known almost unanimously as “The RISD Bike” as a way of describing all three works that we want you to mail in. The 12-20 piece portfolios that you guys sent are required to be reproductions in the form of .jpgs burned to a CD, slides, or unmounted photographic prints. When it comes to those three drawings we want the real deal, fold each of those 16 inch X 20 inch drawings into half twice (or into quarters) and drop them in a mailing envelope and send them off to us. Lets look back a bit at those drawings you sent and give a little history… I have noticed a lot of intrigue, confusion, wonderment, speculation, anticipation, elation, dred, and expectation concerning these. I thought taking a moment to reflect on where they came from and what we are looking for might shed some light on the whole issue. Why a bicycle and why are you sending in the actual drawings? There’s a little RISD history lesson found in the answer. The director of Admissions informed me that the roots of the current drawing assignments go back decades to a time when you had to audition in person for entry into RISD’s program. This meant you would travel to Providence and meet with a Professor and other hopeful RISD applicants. The group of applicants would then create a drawing in one of our studios under the Professors supervision. The subject would often be a group of intertwined bicycles positioned on the floor. The drawing would be timed and at the conclusion the results would be judged as part of your admissions decision. Talk about intense! Things are (thankfully) much more manageable these days. We aren’t interested in a timed response, but we are interested  in your ideas…so take you time with these drawings!  We are as concerned with results as we are with concept and idea. What are these drawings about? What are you investigating? There are three drawings we require with many different opportunities for exploration. There is much to be said for using observational drawing as a tool. Find inspiration in a real world object and go from there with your ideas to open up new possibilities. Try to avoid copying a photograph (even one you have taken yourself), or working exclusively from your imagination. This can often handicap your creative potential and remove options or ideas that searching the world around you can provide. So allow your crazy ideas to pop up and combine with the things you see around you. Whether your making a drawing of an altered piece of paper, using both sides of the paper, or drawing a bicycle think about this as solving a visual problem.  Check out all the requirements here.  Most of all have fun with these, enjoy the process and know that your individual responses are what makes these successful, not fulfilling some idea of what they should look like. We know that you guys who applied worked hard on them, so hang tight while we review, and best of luck to all!   

Leon Paul Hovanesian II 
contact me: lhovanes@risd.edu