Drawing I: Basic Techniques and Fundamentals

Instructor: Robin Adair
Tuesdays 1-4pm
8 weeks: April 16 to June 4
Location: In-person Williams Building room 306
$310 (supplies not inlcuded)
Prerequisite: None

Students will explore foundational techniques, concepts, and materials for drawing two-dimensional images. Each class will focus on techniques that develop and integrate the analytical and intuitive sides of the creative brain. Students will develop observational skills through still-life drawing, self-portraiture, and landscape studies. They will also learn and apply some of the fundamental principles of design – rhythm, balance, positive and negative space, light and shadows, form, surface, and line – through mixed-media techniques, chiaroscuro studies, contour drawing, gesture drawing, and brush and ink works. 

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Syllabus

• Contour drawing; gesture drawing; exploratory mark making
• Using pattern and line to creating rhythm and harmony in the landscape subject
• Shading and value: introduction to still-life drawing
• Composition and design: studies in rhythm, balance, and positive and negative space
• Mixed media: depicting the landscape subject with expressive mark-making and layering multiple mediums
• Symbolic representation: creating visual analogues and narratives with gestural line, value, shape, and pattern
• Perspective drawing: utilizing a horizon and multiple vanishing points to create 3-dimensional environments
• Brush and ink: exploring ink washes and expressive line work
• Self-portraiture: introduction to anatomical proportions and shading
• Independent work

Supplies

• Package of vine or willow charcoal
• Graphite sticks (2B; 4B)
• Graphite pencils (2H; 2B; 4B; 6B; 8B) Staedtler Mars Lumograph brand is recommended
• Package of blending stumps
• Erasers: 2 kneaded and 1 gum
• Conte (brown, black, and white)
• 1 bamboo ink brush
• Container of permanent black India or Sumi Ink
• Roll or package of rice paper
• 9x12 pad of newsprint 
• 11x14 Pad of white drawing paper