F0617 Drawing from the Italian Masters

In this class students connect to the visual arts tradition by visually internalizing it through drawing. Drawing forces one to slowly observe each aspect of the master picture: underlying narrative, the formal organization, and structure of the image. One distills the organization into a drawing that reveals the underlying composition. Drawing from a master forces one to understand the visual language used to construct the image, how the dark and light forms are organized, the arrangement and use of color, the role of light and space. Each drawing is a problem to solve. Which quality of the original does one want to keep as a reminder of the primary experience? Students will strive to ensnare a sense of the whole picture with a few lines, or simplified forms, to distill the organization of a masterwork into a small sketch.\r\n

This introductory level Fine Arts Studio course will introduce students to the process, materials, and issues addressed in exploration of the basic principles and concepts of making visual artworks. The class assignments will examine historical approaches, techniques and skills involved through drawing assignments. Drawing is a crucial companion to seeing, an opportunity for the student to train their vision, and is the fundamental skill, the beginning of an understanding of the language of visual art. Classes will introduce basic drawing skills and then we will apply them by drawing from masterworks.

\r\nThe course emphasis therefore is two fold: first, the command of basic formal concepts and skills: the page, how mark, shape, value, scale, and composition interact to become a visual language, and secondly, an introduction to the great masterworks of Venice. The goal of this class is to connect to that tradition by synthesizing, visual language, images that one would want to contemplate and retain. Much of the class time will be spent visiting museums and churches to view and draw from the great works. Some class time will be spent viewing introductory slide lectures, critiquing works completed during the previous week or done as homework, and enlarging on-site sketches into larger more finished drawing. The class will challenge the students to absorb and understand the visual cultural of Venice; it\'s traditions and achievements .