History of Mathematics
Who knew that back in the day, math had a lot more to do with geometry and hence pictures than it does today, I would say. The Pythagorean Theorum is particularly popular when it comes to 'visual proofs'. I've been reading this book How Round is Your Circle?, in which you are encouraged to make physical representations out of wood and hinges of famous geometric shapes (if only I had a woodworking shop!).
Visualizing algebra equations of first through third order (1 - 3 dimensions) has been kind of interesting as well, although mind bending. Back in the day, math was a hands on kind of thing. You could very well intuit the mathematical properties of an equation with the tools of the math trade: the compass and straight edge. If you could draw it, it was possible.
Scientific Visualization
Now this is a fun and hard class. I'm struggling basically to learn software that lets you make pictures of scientific data. There are several programs, and they don't all do what you want to do and so the trouble is: how do you take three half-scissors and make a fork? My last homework is, so far, the best I've yet been able to do.
We were supposed to improve the following diagram of vector fields (think river currents):
I made a rough draft of colors I thought I might want to use, and then uh...well, lets just say thats not what I ended up with:
My final design ended up something like this (slightly different colors that, make it easier to read the map, but aren't as pretty. This is the prettiest one I didn't get to use):
In summary: not doing much drawing art lately - well, kind of doing art.
