Through the use of a visual literacy process of instruction as an initial stage in perceiving and creating, beginning college art students can acquire knowledge and skills for completing successful drawings. This process includes the following steps: selecting a simple and familiar subject; studying the entire form of the subject; looking for big and small shapes on the form and studying the relationship of these shapes to each other and to the surrounding space; analyzing colors, details, and value areas; looking for line and texture; identifying a focal point; and considering movement and unity. This process has five major purposes: the production of more successful drawings, preclusion of imitation, disciplinary exercise, creation of a method of drawing from memory, and instruction on how to initially view a work of art. A bibliography and several drawings are included. (LP)