Drawing I: Basic Techniques and Fundamentals

Instructor: Robin Adair
Mondays 5:30-8:30pm
10 weeks: September 18 to November 27, no class October 9
Location: In-person Williams Building room 306
$375 (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. 

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