This course is designed to show you how to draw. It gives you a container to learn different drawing methods. I cannot teach you to draw. That is not a guaranteed outcome, I will show you how to draw. You have to choose to learn, and take responsibility for your education.
Anyone and everyone in here can draw, just put marks on a canvas with any mark making instrument and that’s a drawing. What matters is that you want to become a better draftsman and do certain things with this medium. Don't take these methods on faith, don't believe they'll work. Be scientific about them, see if they work by doing the prescribed set of steps. I will tell you what to do, when to do it, and why. If it works for you then it doesn't really matter how it works or how well it works, only that you were able to do something you weren't able to do before. If you aren't able to do what you wanted to do, it’s still in you, you should still want to do it. Time grants all things you are willing to work on. You will not work towards a definitive change, the end result is never guaranteed. The only thing that is for sure is that you will have opportunities to change and they may not turn out quite like you expected it to look, but that’s life.
This class is yearlong, I’ve been painting and drawing professionally for upwards of six to eight years. Please give me your full attention and commitment and I will show you some great techniques to help better your abilities, outlook, and understanding of drawing.
Over the course of this class students will be given a wide variety of choices as to how to demonstrate, explore, learn, and test their drawing abilities. Each core objective will have a variety of project options for a student to choose. The first semester is set in a kind of narrow linear fashion, and towards the end of the year it broadens out and students get way more freedom and choice. Here’s a brief explanation of how the year will go. Below is my tentative plan for how the year will go.
Semester 1
For each project group you will sometimes have a choice as to which project you do to complete the objective. On weeks that have no choice you must do the project as a class. You will do both of the units listed below in the order listed below in the Lesson Pathway.
Intro to Drawing- 35 days
Rendering Value- 32 days
Semester 2- 3rd quarter
You will now have a chance as a class to pick one of the two main subjects/units to tackle, the human figure or space. The vote will be democratic. If a split occurs I may split the class and allow both subject to be taught. For now though, I am anticipating that there will be a majority, and majority will rule.
Creating space- 32 days
The Human Form- 32 days
Semester 2- 4th quarter
You will now get a chance to individually pick which two of the following units that are of interest to you and pursue them at your own pace. Each unit has at least two main categories of project, one that’s simpler, and one that’s a bit harder. You may also do the entire unit’s set of five or six projects and skip doing two units if the unit has enough projects to cover 5-6 weeks. There are recorded video lectures for each unit's project groups, watch and listen to the video lectures to understand and begin a project for that unit. If you have any questions after watching a lecture just ask me and I will clarify what the project is about.
Color- 18 days
Simplified Design- 13 d
Illustrating Letterforms- 15 days
Hybridity- 20 days
End of the Year Final
The final for the year is a series of difficult multi-week projects. This is usually not choice based, I the teacher usually pick a final that I wish to see completed. However, this is a tentative plan, depending on how the year goes that may change. I may separate certain projects and make them the final, or give students a choice as to what their final project will be.
Drawing as Medium- 35 days
The way I hope to run this class is to flip it in the second semester. A flipped classroom is one where the students watch the lectures and demonstrations at home, then come to school prepared to complete the assignments with the teacher as a guide. Just imagine if instead of going home to complete some baffling math homework you had the teacher there helping you every step of the way. At home you could just sit and watch a short video of the concept the teacher was trying to teach you, no distractions, you could rewind it and pause it at will, or you could search online for other ways to learn the same concept. That’s kind of what I hope to do with this class. When you come to school, you should be ready to do the work, and you’ll one hundred percent of the time in class to complete with a teacher there to help you in case you get stuck.
I know that some students do not have access to the internet at home or at all times. If that’s the case I’m more than happy to accommodate you. Come in before, after, or during school hours whenever you are free to watch videos. Talk to me, I want our time spent in class to be productive, first and foremost.
For my drawing class, I want to flip my second semester so that you have the most choice available to you. As a class we will choose the first unit and then from there you will quite a few choices as to what to pursue. At about the middle of the second semester I will release the reins and you will get to choose two out of four available units to pursue. There are short video lectures for each of these units, please watch the videos if you wish to understand the projects. This will save me the time of having to individually explain projects to small groups of students. If you have any questions after watching the videos please let me know and I’ll be happy to help.
This is a tentative list of projects and their proposed time limits as measured in days. Due dates will be given in class but will probably fall within the proposed time limit. Time limits will change depending on snow days, and the pace of the class. For each project group you will get to pick an assignment, if there is only one choice you will have to do that one project. If you take more time than is allowed to finish your project that takes time away from the next project group’s project. Also keep in mind that handing in projects early is different than handing in projects that are well done. Use all of the time allotted for you to create a quality project.
Each Project Group is hyper-linked to the presentation that I use in class. The PowerPoint presentation includes the project criteria and objectives for each project along with student examples and professional artist examples of the style or method I wish you to engage in. Please understand that I may change the criteria of the assignment, the official assignment is always posted in my room on the Criteria & Objectives board. When and if we are able to maintain a choice based structure I may take it upon myself to update assignments digitally but when all else fails always check the physically posted assignment criteria in class. Project choices below that have hyper-links are linked to project resources such as packets and handouts. At the very bottom is each unit folder too if the links are broken or not working.
Down towards the shorter units, starting with the Drawing with Color unit, there are hyperlinks to the videos for each project group. This is to facilitate choice at the start of the second semester, depending on which unit you pick you can watch the lecture for those projects and proceed to work on them in class. Links to the videos exist in duplicate at the very bottom and under the video tab.
Videos for Drawing and Illustration
Again, here's a shortlist of the video lectures for the second semester of drawing and illustration. The videos are presented here in the order they appear in the syllabus, again you have to complete two out of the four units. If you wish you can focus on one unit and complete all of the projects for it if they fill the time.
Playlist from the start, all videos
Color Unit
Black and White Unit
Illustrating Letterforms Unit
Hybridity
Bonus Unit! The Human Form
Google Drive Folders
In addition to the hyperlinks above what follows is a Google Drive folder full of the presentations I will give for each project throughout the year. These presentations are the same as the ones hyper-linked above, this is just another way to get to them. Keep in mind these presentations are not updated via Google Drive so they are often not the definitive versions. (I usually use Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite to make my files, which are then uploaded to the Drive after the fact, so what you see here is what I start the year with.) Always check in with the official posted set of Criteria & Objectives in class for each assignment.
Often when I'm stuck I do some more visual research, or I look at artists and artwork that inspires me. If you click on the following link you'll be brought to a Google Drive folder filled with over a thousand or so links of various artists. To view a link from Google drive, download it, then open it from your download folder. I recommend you do this all in the Google Chrome web browser that way you can save links to your bookmarks bar.
The list is nearly endless. It took me hours to compile from resources I've gathered over the past few years. Don't get overwhelmed by it. I'll try and post a few of my favorite artists below when I get the chance.
A couple of warnings about the link dump:
Not necessarily all of the links are accessible on the school's network or are appropriate for school. Some artwork may be considered not safe for work or school use by the school's filter. I happen to think that students should expand their horizons and see as much art as possible. There are a handful of blocked links even though on the whole you can find information about the artists through other searches or avenues. The ones that are blocked may have been blocked for having nudity in them. It is fine art so it's perfectly fine to be viewed as such on your own computer if the school disagrees. The filter is far from perfect and even if it does mislabel something it's doing so for the better of the school as a whole organization. Please do not work around the filter to view a block site, just search what is searchable and you'll find what you need to know about an artist another way. Most all of these art links are pretty tame and I've made sure of that. Only a handful of these artists have caused a stir for dealing with graphic material, those artist's searches have modified to include their tamer work. Ask me, your teacher if you want to know more about an artist whose work has been blocked.
The other thing I do not guarantee is if gallery site links will stay permanent. Galleries frequently change exhibitions and their web presence can often shift depending on the needs of the artist so those links will probably be outdated quickly.
Problems could arise from a link no longer being hosted on an aggregation site, or an artist updating or shifting their site entirely. Search parts of the url like the artist's name if you want to find anything on them again. Sometimes, if the name is generic you might need to add modifiers like "artist" or "painter" to the search.
Most all of the artists in the link dump are contemporary artists. Some of the older masters are present in this link dump, masters who have been around may go by one name, such as "Rembrandt". Not all of the masters are in this link dump. It is important to remember that if you want more relevant searches or want to more about an artist that you search their full name and potentially understand a little bit more about them than just their work if you truly want to understand them. For older artists this is possible, especially artists that are referred to by a single names like Titian or Ingres. For contemporary artists you may not have much to go on, so don't be surprised if all's you will find is a simple gallery page with a handful of works. Keep searching and you will find the relevant information. The links to artists in this collection are by no means perfect or well made, they're mostly Google image searches. Please keep in mind that the links to certain artist are not definitive representations of those artists, you'll need to keep searching if you truly want to understand their work.