Course Description
Summary
Learning to draw is as much about learning how to use your hand as it is learning how to see. Drawing from observation fundamentally alters our experience of the everyday while also teaching us about ourselves: what we notice and overlook, what we find pleasure in and what we don’t, and so much more. In this course, students will practice and develop observational drawing skills by using a variety of materials to represent a range of subjects. By exploring various approaches to drawing what we see we will also explore the perceptual, philosophical, meditative, psychological, and embodied/sensory experience that drawing opens up.
In this course you will expand your capacity to see and represent what you see by investigating a variety of methods, materials, and techniques. We will work with wet and dry drawing materials including, ink, charcoal, graphite, chalk, and oil stick to explore various drawing processes, techniques, and conceptual approaches. Each material allows for a different type of exploration and expressive quality. The first half of this course is centered on drawing primarily from still life, interior spaces, and/or landscape, while the second half is focused on the figure (nude model and portraiture) and introduces more experimental techniques that decenter sight as the primary sense used for drawing. Class time will primarily consist of drawing and will be supplemented by occasional slide lectures, possible visits to regional museums, readings, and conversations about the process of drawing and its outcomes (critique).
