DS110 Foundations of Drawing for the Beginner

With Diane Cardaci

8 weeks   No credits

The basics of drawing for those with no experience

Students will be encouraged to keep a sketchbook as well as doing drawing exercises.

Photos will be provided for the exercises, but students will also be asked to find similar objects in their own home environment.

Lesson 1

  • Use of tools: pencils, erasers, paper, etc.
  • How to hold the pencil
  • Practice drawing lines
  • Drawing exercise #1: Working with lines, angles and proportion (drawing lines in a box)
  • Drawing exercise #2: Creating a simple line drawing using a grid

Lesson 2

  • How to measure using your pencil
  • How to see angles with your pencil
  • How to make and use a plumb line
  • Drawing exercise #1: Draw an outline of a pear
  • Drawing exercise #2: Draw an outline of one small and one large fruit

Lesson 3

  • Basic shapes-simplifying an object into a few basic shapes (ex. tree, flower, bunch of grapes
  • Drawing exercise #1: Basic shapes of a still life
  • Drawing exercise #2: Basic shapes of still life (drawing 1) with additional detail shapes

Lesson 4

  • "Enveloping" - using angular lines to block in a form
  • Drawing exercise #1: Blocking in practice of single objects
  • Drawing exercise #2: Blocking in a still life

Lesson 5

  • Negative and Positive shapes
  • Drawing exercise #1: Finding negative shapes in simple objects (ex. cup handle)
  • Drawing exercise #2: Finding negative shapes in between objects Page 2

Lesson 6

  • Drawing circles in perspective
  • Drawing exercise #1: Draw cup from 3 different perspectives
  • Drawing exercise #2: Draw a vase with 2 flowers

Lesson 7

  • Pulling it all together, using skills developed in previous lessons
  • Drawing exercise: Complex still life, from blocking in to creating a refined line drawing

Lesson 8: Looking Forward

  • Learning to vary the line weight
  • Introduction to simple shadow patterns
  • Drawing exercise: Transfer the drawing done in Lesson 7 to a new piece of paper, using varied line weight, and simple shadow patterns

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