Course Description
Summary
Learning to draw is as much about learning how to use your hand as it is learning how to see. In this course, students will practice and develop observational and representational drawing skills by looking closely at our subjects from life and using a variety of physical drawing materials. We will explore various approaches to drawing what we see and experience and discuss the perceptual, philosophical, meditative, psychological, and embodied/sensory experience that drawing opens up when we look closely at the world around us. Drawing from observation fundamentally alters our experience of the everyday by allowing us to notice what has become familiar to us in a new way. It teaches us about what we notice and overlook, what we find pleasure in and what we don’t, how we define beauty, and so much more.
In this course you will expand your capacity to see and represent what you see by using a variety of methods, materials, and techniques. We will work with drawing materials including, ink, charcoal, graphite, chalk, and/or oil stick. 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). 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).
