Drawing can be an extremely satisfying activity that permits us to visualize ideas, copy a subject faithfully and express aesthetic concepts. But drawing can also be extremely frustrating, if we lack the essential technical and methodological elements of this activity.

This course, part of the New Renaissance Atelier Academic Program, is designed to provide the students with a solid drawing foundation, through a variety of exercises aimed to practice measuring, tonal rendering, light on form, elements of perspective, drawing techniques, drawing on white and toned paper with graphite, charcoal and chalk, colored pencils, pen and ink, silverpoint, monochrome watercolor washes.

We will practice copying a variety of subjects starting from basic volumes such as a cube, a sphere, a cone and a cylinder, perfect subjects to study light theory, and gradually moving on to more complex ones, like photos of Casts, reproductions of Masters works and photos of the human figure, to study and practice measuring, tonal rendering in graphite and charcoal and chalk. We will also be drawing landscapes, working from photos and Masters works, practicing perspective, composition, how to use a grid to replicate, enlarge or reduce a subject.

Material for Drawing foundation:

For the first class:

• A pad of drawing paper, such as Strathmore or Canson Drawing in vellum or medium finish, 11” by 14” or so.
• Graphite Pencils (wood casing or lead holder) in HB-B-2B gradations

For the rest of the course

• A pad of Strathmore Charcoal in assorted tints, 9” x 12” or bigger
• Colored pencils (Faber Castel, Derwent, Stabilo or Caran d’Ache) in red earth, brown dark blue, black
• Charcoal pencils and/or sticks, in medium and soft gradation, (General’s makes very good compressed charcoal pencils and Nitram makes excellent charcoal sticks), white chalk in pencil or sticks, Conte, Cretacolor or General’s pastels in red earth.
• Erasers and sharpeners, sand paper.