DRAWING FOUNDATIONS
Learning and practicing the foundations of drawing is essential for developing strong visual skills that extend beyond drawing itself. When we have a solid foundation in drawing, our skills translate into painting, sculpture, and all forms of visual art. Learning foundational techniques like line, shape, proportion, perspective, and value train the eye to observe accurately, while training the hand to translate what is seen with intention and control. These core skills build visual literacy, helping artists understand form, space, and structure. Whether working on paper, canvas or in clay, a solid grounding in drawing empowers artists to create with greater confidence, precision, and expressive depth.
I have a passion for teaching the foundations of drawing and I teach from an academic perspective. What exactly does academic mean? Academic drawing is a traditional, disciplined approach to drawing generally based on the tried and true methods rooted in the practices of the European art academies. There is a strong emphasis on drawing from life and the copying of the masters. Life drawing includes the still life, the plaster cast and the live model. Academic methods and techniques train the artist's eye and hand. The ultimate goal is the development of strong technical skills which include understanding the physics of light and how we see form.
In my foundational face-to-face drawing courses and my in online mentorship, students begin with the very basics. We learn about materials and best tools to use for our best work.
We begin our studies with:
I have a passion for teaching the foundations of drawing and I teach from an academic perspective. What exactly does academic mean? Academic drawing is a traditional, disciplined approach to drawing generally based on the tried and true methods rooted in the practices of the European art academies. There is a strong emphasis on drawing from life and the copying of the masters. Life drawing includes the still life, the plaster cast and the live model. Academic methods and techniques train the artist's eye and hand. The ultimate goal is the development of strong technical skills which include understanding the physics of light and how we see form.
In my foundational face-to-face drawing courses and my in online mentorship, students begin with the very basics. We learn about materials and best tools to use for our best work.
We begin our studies with:
- Drawing Mediums & Tools
~ Graphite
~ Charcoal
~ Chalk
~ Ink
~ Soft pastels - How to sharpen a pencil ~ To learn pressure control and fine rendering (of course, this is optional) ~ See video below :)
- The academic vocabulary of drawing ~ such as the 'anatomy' of shadows and light
- The Value Scale
- Mark-making
- How to draw a sphere
- The physics of light
- How to model form
- How to measure proportions
- Linear perspective
- And much, much more...
How to sharpen a pencil |
Anatomy speed drawing |