Engaging Beginner Skills

This course is designed for beginner artists who have an interest in learning how to draw and sketch as well as paint and build 3 dimensional works of art-- or simply want to improve their skills. It covers the tools you'll need to draw, paint, design and build as well as provide plenty of exercises to practice using different techniques and styles. It will cover drawing people, places, things, and even abstract concepts. For best results, I highly recommend that students take their time going through this course.

This introductory Course  also emphasizes the analysis and exploration of basic drawing techniques in the visual interpretation of natural and fabricated forms.  Students will be introduced to a variety of drawing media.  Two hours lecture, four hours studio each week.  The fundamental objective of the course will be to develop an understanding of drawing as a two dimensional visual equivalent of the three dimensional world. Students will thereby have a more solid foundation from which to transfer their two-dimensional skills to a 3 dimensional environment. The emphasis will be on creative problem solving, through the development of a "language" of drawing, designing and building.

This course also involves the observation and translation of three-dimensional form into two-dimensional drawings. Starting with simple shapes and progressing to more complex organic forms, students will build skill levels in composition, line quality, use of tone and human anatomy.

As seen below, students are learning the basic concepts of creating a 3 dimensional object on a 2 dimensional surface:

Upon successful completion of this phase of the course students should be able to:

Articulate and solve basic problems of form in space through line and mass.

• Learn to layout a drawing: use sighting techniques to create object relationships on paper which relate convincingly to what is being observed.

• Students will begin to control the direction of observed contour line, and to control line 

weight as it relates to contour edge and outline.

• Students will be able to use the elements and principles of design to compose a drawing based on observation.

• Students will be able to develop ideas through the thumbnail drawing process. 

• Students will be able to analyze drawings, and using acquired vocabulary, identify

opportunities for improvement. 

• Students will become aware of the art historical context of drawing.

Generate drawings that display differences in lighting and value.

• Become acquainted with and learn to use basic drawing tools: pencils of varying hardness’s, charcoal and papers.

• Learn to “see” value intervals and translate what is seen to the two-dimensional drawing surface.

Generate drawings that utilize economy of line

• Students will acquire the habit of keeping a sketchbook to record drawn observations, thumbnail ideas, and notes.