Drawing for Absolute Beginners class plan

  • DC CLASS PLAN
  • BRING TO CLASS
  • BASIC BAGS
  • 1_BLUE BAG
  • 2_PERSONAL
  • 3_LAPTOP
  • 4_LAPTOP ACCESSORIES
  • 5_BOOKS and HANDOUTS
  • ART1_PENCIL SHARPENER
  • ART2_DRAWING  SUPPLIES
  • P1_DRAWING CLASS PAPER

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MEETING 1

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1_Introductions

Very quick – your name, what you’re looking for in the class

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2_First lecture: 

Tell people: there are two general approaches to drawing, and, four steps to learning to draw:

1) learning how to draw what you see in front of you, and

2) learning to draw what you see in your mind’s eye.

The fours steps are:

a) learning about your materials, 

Getting used to them (warmups….straight lines, textures, shading, shapes) (we’ll start with that “today” and continue with it through all four classes)

b) learning how to draw what you see in front of you, accurately 

(best techniques are: contours, upside down, negative space) 

(so-called right brain drawing techniques)

c) learning to draw what you visualize, based on knowledge and imagination

constructive drawing: the four basic shapes

d) putting it all together.

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3_Tell them we will start out drawing from photos for several of the classes, then move on to drawing from life.  We’ll do a number of exercises, and the way they fit together may not be evident till the third or fourth class.

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4_ STRAIGHT LINES

Ask people to try drawing some straight lines (show them how on the board – three methods)

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5_ SHADING

Pass around the shading handout while they’re drawing straight lines

Ask people to try some practice shading based on the pics I bring in

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7_NEGATIVE SPACE

Pass around negative space drawing handout and explain the concept.

Ask them to draw negative spaces from the handout

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8_DRAW THE CAT

pass around cat handout

ask them to draw the cat.

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MEETING 2

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stravinski drawing by picasso 

mushrooms (from neg. spaces)

straight lines

contour explanation/demonstration

contour, draw wrinkled sheet

contour, draw your hand

negative space, sheet

(incorporating contours)

IMPORTANT: FROM now on, save contour drawings for class 2 or 3, don’t do them in the first class, they confuse people about contours and negative spaces.

In class 3 we learn how to draw cylinders and cones, starting with negative spaces, then a step by step method, then draw objects made up of both.

IMPORTANT: bring some actual cylinders to draw. 

1) warm up

2) a little shading practice

3) Mushrooms (starting from negative spaces) (simplified version, one mushroom)

4) how to draw cylinders and cones: method 1: negative space (demonstrate on board, pass around handout, ask them to draw from it)

5) how to draw cylinders: methods based on basic shapes

(show three methods on board)

6) practice drawing cylinders from LIFE

(pass around cans, ask them to draw them)

7) How to draw cones: methods based on basic shapes

8) Practice drawing cylinder/cone combinations from handouts: jugs

9) contour drawings (from life) (my shirt)

Solid black and white shapes, like charlie  chaplin: lots of little pics with negative space to draw… short timed drawings…..

little pencil drawing value studies… value studies in pencil from Famous Artists and how to draw books… 

just bring in, tell them to draw upside down as our warmup… start with simple ones….

More right brain stuff

UPSIDE DOWN DRAWINGS

More right brain drawings

Drawings from Betty Edwards’ book

(and do pics with lots of VALUE STUDIES)

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MEETING 3 and 4

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CONSTRUCTIVE DRAWING:

THE FOUR BASIC SHAPES

Start with more shading warmups.Then talk about the four basic shapes. Ask them to draw cylinders, cones, spheres and  boxes.  

Then ask them to draw the jug and other handouts, using negative space as needed.

Bring picture of coffeepot and other still life stuff

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MEETING 1: RIGHT BRAIN DRAWING (WARMUPS , THEN, CATS)

MEETING 2: FOUR BASIC SHAPES

MEETING 3: PERSPECTIVE

MEETING 4: NATURE

MEETING 5: NATURE

DC NEW CLASS PLAN

FOUR WEEK CLASS:

MEETING 1: RIGHT BRAIN DRAWING (WARMUPS , THEN, CATS)

MEETING 2: FOUR BASIC SHAPES

MEETING 3: PERSPECTIVE

MEETING 4: NATURE

DC as a four-week class:

Class 1:  Right brain drawing 

___warmups: textures and shading

___cats

Class 2:  constructive drawing: four basic shapes

Shading with the side of the pencil

Shading with circles and loops

Shading with lines

Shading with the point of the pencil

Contour drawing

Drawing abstract shapes

Drawing negative spaces

Drawing straight lines: 

__freehand

__to an X or a dot

____INTRODUCTIONS  

_______your name

_______what brings you here

_______how is the experience of drawing, for you? 

_______How do you feel about it?

__THEORY

______________four basic shapes (constructive drawing)

______________negative space (right brain drawing)

__WARM-UPS

_______scribbles

_______straight lines

_______how to draw ovals

______________freehand method

______________more controlled method

_______shading:

______________side of pencil: very soft shading, layering it in

______________point of pencil: very soft shading, layering it in

______________little circles

______________little curls

______________little lines

______________little checkmarks

__some practice doing shading and textures

__how to draw cylinders

__how to draw cones

______________try drawing the jug from the handout

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DC class plan modifications

instead of the group of mushrooms in class  2,  maybe one big mushroom in a box

homework should be really SIMPLE line art icons with very clear negative spaces

THEN move on to blending 

I’m teaching the second class….. I brought in the lion cub face and the buddhist statue handout…. the buddhist statue handout was so-so, not very fun for people I think… maybe too complex.  

I think it would have been better to bring in another handout with random negative spaces they could draw, and spend ten or fifteen minutes drawing those, then doing a shading warmup, before starting on the buddhist statue. 

One good thing, I brought rulers, so they could transfer the box around the images to the better Strathmore drawing paper, and I think people found it useful to try drawing on the nicer paper.

Class 1:

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IMPORTANT: From now on, save contour drawings for class 2 or 3, don’t do them in the first class, they confuse people about contours and negative spaces.

IMPORTANT:  don’t  teach any perspective in the class on boxes/cubes. It just confuses people.  Instead, the handout I give people should have a frame around it so they can work entirely from negative spaces. This is true for the handout of the box, the handout of the table, and the handout of the rock formations all should have frames around them and come from negative spaces.

For handouts for the DC class —

I should find or make drawings of the fours basic shapes WITH CAST SHADOWS and shadow cores, and with the background blackened in. 

SUCH AS: a shaded cylinder with a cast shadow and black behind it.

Drawing for beginners note – second class session needs to start out with my giving them another page of boxes with negative spaces to draw.  Some with shading.

I think people get goofy when I ask them to do lots and lots of subtle shading. The mushroom pic seems overwhelming, even broken into a tiny grid.  Instead make a handout with four pictures on it. Each picture is divided into fourths.  Each picture needs to have definite dark and light areas. Start with two tones, then three, in each picture. The mushroom just seems too complex.