Drawing for Absolute Beginners

Through demonstration and individual, hands-on help, you’ll learn all the basic techniques necessary to drawing. Once you understand the fundamentals of seeing and drawing, sketching becomes much easier. The rest is just practice.

We start small with a few warm-up exercises each week. You'll first learn to see objects in a different way, as large geometric shapes without detail, and then put those shapes on paper. We proceed with learning to judge and measure lines and angles, and add shading for depth; learn to see the proportions and negative space in a photo and simple still life; and learn to see, measure, and copy more complex objects from life, in the studio, from photographs, and possibly outdoors (weather permitting).

We will spend some time on the basics of drawing portraits and faces, but please note that this class does not involve drawing from live models. You'll also learn the best ways to enlarge and trace images or photos that appeal to you - your own photos, or images you find online - and develop a basic tracing into a detailed drawing.

It's a bit tough at first, like learning a new language. But the more you do it, the easier it gets, and after a few months of practice, you'll find it's almost second nature.

This 4-week class covers all the basic drawing skills:

• Drawing shapes and learning to shade to create values and depth
• Training your eye to see proportions, angles, and size
• Perspective basics
• Portrait basics (there is no working from live models, however)

Homework assignments and exercises are given every week.

Required Materials:
An ordinary pencil and sheets of printer/xerox paper.

It's not necessary, but you're encouraged to use a sketchpad (any paper you like) and 4B drawing pencils, or charcoal pencils, or pens of any kind. Sketchbook should be at least 9x12", but it can be as large as you like.