Drawing I
Learn the art of drawing and communicate what you see
Many people are afraid to draw, but the truth is that drawing is not as hard as it seems. If you can relax, get your mind around the task, and begin to understand what you see, you can draw.
In this 6-lesson course, you'll learn how to analyze what you see in the world around you and communicate it on paper. Through hands-on projects, and guided by a professional artist, you will explore the critical concepts of line, mass, form, perspective, value, and composition, building a solid foundation for all your art and design work. You will also delve into complex drawing techniques involving value, color, and contemporary stylistic approaches.
And most importantly, you'll also discover that drawing can be fun. Did you know that spheres have inner edges? Or why artists measure with their thumbs? Grab your charcoal and chalk pastels... this course is your first step to developing your craft as an artist.
Tuition: $600 US
Course Instructor(s):
Requirements:
- Computer with Internet connection (56 Kbps modem or faster).
- A range of drawing materials detailed in the course.
- A digital camera capture your work digitally for submission. A scanner may be used for some projects, but is not required.
- Basic pencil drawing experience recommended but not required.
Prerequisites:
Course Objectives:
- Build a foundation in drawing skills by creating a wide range of still life drawings.
- Develop best practices for drawing by setting up lighting and choosing and handling materials appropriately.
- Identify and represent in drawing the basic elements of form (line, plane, mass) and the fundamental geometrical shapes of subjects.
- Use both gesture and contour drawings to capture the mass and structural lines in drawing subjects.
- Use measuring points and thumb measures to keep the different areas of a drawing in perspective.
- Apply approaches to creating the illusion of depth or effective composition.
- Identify the effects of lighting location, angle, and direction, in creating shadow and value contrast in drawing subjects.
- Separate a drawing into light and dark areas and represent the overall lighting using a cast shadow and shadow edge.
- Identify and represent in drawing six different levels of value: highlights, mid-tones, shadow edge, casting shadow, core shadow, and reflected light.
- Use charcoal, graphite, mixed materials, and ink wash to represent value in drawing.
- Identify and apply basic color interactions and mixing techniques for use in drawing.
- Identify and apply stylistic approaches to drawing including photo-realism, photomontage, and abstract expressionism.
Course Outline
LESSON 1 How We See (Getting from Here to There)
Lesson One focuses on learning to see the form of objects in the physical world. Rather than drawing every last detail in your subjects, will learn to recognize the basic form of what you see. Lesson One explores this topic using the gesture drawing technique, helping you develop a sense of mass and space on the page. You'll get an orientation to your art materials, learning how to set up a drawing board and work with charcoal. In the exercise, you'll practice creating different kinds of lines with charcoal and hone your observation skills through gesture drawings.
LESSON 2 Depth and Perspective
Lesson Two deepens your understanding of form, showing you how the elements in your composition can be viewed as fundamental geometrical shapes and objects. You'll also examine the principles of linear perspective, learning about the vanishing point and one-, two-, and three-point perspective, and the phenomenon of foreshortening. Techniques are addressed to help your integrate these ideas into your work along with techniques for using space, depth, and composition. In the exercise, you'll apply all this knowledge to several still life projects.
LESSON 3 Concepts in Value
Separating parts of your drawings into light and dark or shadow areas will go along way toward helping you create the illusion of depth and volume. In this lesson, you'll examine how lighting conditions such location, direction, and angle of light can combine to affect the level of contrast and drama in your drawings. You'll learn how to look for the shadow edge and cast shadow in your still life subjects. In the exercise, you'll create value scales and still life value study drawings of your own.
LESSON 4 More Concepts in Value
This lesson looks beyond basic charcoal as a descriptor of value, turning attention to graphic pencils, compressed charcoal, conté crayon, and even ink washes. You will learn to create value using these materials and learn to create mixed materials drawings. This exercise gives you your choice of materials to explore in two value drawings.
LESSON 5 Drawing with Color
Everything is more exciting when color is in the mix. This lesson introduces basic color theory and techniques for dry color media (such as pencils and pastel), exploring hue, value, temperature, and harmony. You will learn to mix and blend colors for realistic shades. In the exercise, you'll use colored chalk pastels to create a color wheel, value scale, and two color drawings.
LESSON 6 Drawing in Art
To wrap up this course's intensive look at drawing, you will learn in Lesson Six how drawing is applied in different types of art. You will look at art samples and techniques for drawing from photographs, creating photomontages or collages, and even creating abstract expressionist works. You'll have your choice of these styles in the exercise to create an amazing final piece.
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