Reflections on drawing

This article is presented in three parts. An introduction considers the current emphasis on drawing within the visual arts and literacy debate. An analysis is then offered of key strategies and counter-strategies (including trajectories and cornerstones) in the recent history of drawing as a complex arts practice predicated on different and often contestatory assumptions about how we understand and visualise our world. The third section explores connections between drawing and registers for visual communication and literacy, with specific attention to Umberto Eco's semiotic typology of modes of sign production.