Drawing Beyond Basics: Intermediate Development

Elevate your drawing skills in this 6-week journey. Refine observational techniques, explore innovative approaches, and discover your unique artistic voice. Perfect for those ready to push beyond fundamentals and unlock new realms of creative expression.

Drawing Beyond Basics is a six-week immersive course designed for those who have completed a Beginner level drawing course, or those who have some drawing experience and are looking to refine their skills and explore new approaches to drawing. This course builds upon foundational knowledge, focusing on enhancing technique, improving skills for observation drawing, and expanding students’ repertoire of approaches to drawing. Participants will engage in structured exercises as well as exercises that encourage experimentation, challenging their abilities and pushing their artistic boundaries.

Each class will include work from observation or from artists’ drawings to refine students’ ability to perceive and depict what they see with greater accuracy and confidence, learn about composition and how to use drawing as preparation for painting. To complement this disciplined work, each class will include a more playful component of exercises that explore drawing in an expanded sense. These will open up innovative ways to use drawing to record and express personal experience. Students will learn to use a variety of dry and wet drawing media. By the end of the course, students will have improved their skills of observational drawing and discovered exciting ways to develop their drawing practice in a supportive and dynamic learning environment.

Refine Drawing Techniques: Enhance proficiency in advanced drawing techniques, including mark-making techniques, the depiction of volume and depth, using a viewfinder to compose pictures, using drawing as preparation for painting.
Advanced Observational Skills: Develop a keen eye for capturing intricate details and translating complex scenes onto paper with precision.
Expand Media Proficiency: Experiment with a variety of dry and wet drawing materials and tools, understanding their properties and applications.
Deepen Artistic Expression: Foster creativity, artistic risk-taking, and personal expression, allowing for the development of a unique artistic style and voice.
Enhance Problem-Solving Skills: Improve the ability to troubleshoot and learn from artistic challenges, turning "mistakes" into opportunities for growth.
Build Artistic Confidence: Strengthen confidence in drawing abilities, overcome creative blocks, and foster a positive, proactive approach to art-making.

Strathmore Visual Journal, 9x12”, Mixed Media paper. Or an equivalent Mixed Media sketchbook that is at least 9x12” and has paper suitable for wet and dry media that is fairly heavy=“90 lbs” or more.
Pencil sharpener and something to catch the sharpenings
White eraser
Kneaded eraser
One flat rectangular stick of graphite, 2B. Look for General’s brand
Very fine pen with permanent black ink, such as Sakura Pigma Micron or Staedtler Pigment Liner 0.3 or 0.5 or an Extra-Fine Sharpie.
A variety of “B” (soft) pencils and an “F” or “H” or “HB” pencil. Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencils are especially nice. Faber-Castell and Derwent are also good brands.
Willow charcoal
India ink, a small bottle
A metal jar lid or low tin (to pour a little ink into)
Some twigs of varying widths (to draw with) from the outdoors
A container for water
Rags OR paper towels
A Chinese calligraphy brush OR a round (6 or 8 size) brush that you already have and don’t mind staining with black ink.
Graphite stick (make sure this is graphite and not charcoal, also not compressed graphite.)

Optional:

lighter weight paper for quick drawing exercises
A pad of Strathmore 300 Paper for Charcoal