In this course, you will be asked to use various drawing materials leading up to ink. It is essential that students firmly grasp the differences between a stable media, such as graphite, and an unstable media, like ink. Knowledge of one helps the use of the other, and vice-versa. The first half of the class sessions are devoted to exploring materials – including paper. You will be making various types of drawings with different media. The categories of those drawings are: tonal, line, contour, observational, and imaginary. The latter half of the semester is given over to your own work on a drawing portfolio. You will be given a thorough explanation of the requirements of the drawing portfolio at the end of October. Your project will be made in the last 6 or 7 weeks of the course.
The drawings on this page were chosen because they are two very popular artists, and there is a high chance that you know who they are. The other reason you’re seeing these two artists is that the types of drawings they make are simplified enough that you can look at them without feeling overwhelmed by the extraordinary talent of, for example, Durer or Leonardo. I must point out that while these drawings are not as invested in traditional rendering, they are still not easy to make. There is more involved with making these drawings than you may initially think. The most important point about the drawings is that these artists had the idea to make drawings in this style. When a person looks at an artwork, and you hear them say, “I could do that”, they are leaving out the remainder of the sentence, which is “but I didn’t have the idea.” In this course, you’ll be working on developing your own ideas, and apply those ideas to drawings, using a style and media you choose.