OCA – The Big Draw

Welcome to the Open College of the Arts (OCA) Big Draw activity.

OCA’s Big Draw activity has been designed as a fun, free short art course that you can undertake on your own, or with others. It encourages those new to OCA, as well as existing students, to explore drawing as a tool to enhance personal wellbeing.

We encourage participants to push the concept of drawing and mark-making through invention, innovation, and exploration. You could start by rethinking the possibilities of what drawing is and can be. This is an opportunity to experiment, create marks, patterns, and images of all shapes and sizes, and to mainly have fun, play, and create!

Through a series of activities, you will be prompted to imagine, design, and test your own drawing ‘machine’, and to reflect on your results. It will take roughly 10 hours to complete, however you can take as long or as little time as you like. You can join any time, at a time that suits you, with the ability to leave and come back to the activity when you prefer.

Participants will need to visit learn.oca.ac.uk and click on the Big Draw, then create a new OCA account to access. OCA students can log in using their OCA email address.

The Big Draw festival runs from 1 – 31 October every year, however OCA’s Big Draw activity will remain open, giving you the opportunity to drop in to be creative as many times as you like, and if you enjoyed it, invite your friends, or even take on our other courses below.

The activity is organised into six easy steps. Work through each step, documenting your work and progress as you go. For example, you may want to produce a series of drawings throughout the course, or use a sketchbook to record your work.

Please share your work across social media using the hashtag #WeAreOCA and see what others are creating!