ART 211 - Introduction to Life Drawing

Students develop basic drawing skills and visual awareness through drawing from models. Line quality, textural character, proportion, and chiaroscuro are emphasized using such media as charcoal, pencil, ink and conte crayon. In this course, students will learn perceptual, technical, and conceptual skills through a rigorous focus on the human figure. Drawing the model is an essential experience to one’s growth as an artist, and a rite of passage. It connects students to the time-honored tradition, and enables them to continue the substantial history of figurative artworks. From prehistoric times, to even now in the 21st c., when artists work across a wide variety of media and practices, the human figure (be it in depiction or the use of the body itself) remains an enduring theme in art and potent subject to communicate meaning. This course focuses on that complex and compelling subject as a form and as a powerful metaphor. ART 211 and ART 311 are held together. Letter grade with Pass/No Pass option. (Offered fall semester.) 3 credits