Courses offered in the past four years. Courses offered currently are as noted.

Course Description

Figuratively Distorted: Creating Characters for Cartoon, Caricature, and Animation
In this introductory class we will explore the human figure and its mannerisms through learning to draw using methods that invent expressive characters. We will learn foundational drawing principles depicting the figure from observation, studying its anatomy and how that manifests human expression. We will see, learn, and use the principles of drawing found in images of humans in the Lascaux Caves and Mayan Reliefs; to expressionists like Egon Schiele; and cartoons from Walt Disney to South Park. Students will develop their own individual cartoon characters and storyboard an archetypical narrative forming a collaborative class animation screened publicly in Twilight. No prior drawing experience is expected. It is a 100 level beginning level class open to and designed for students with no visual artmaking experience. This course will count as a prerequisite towards 300-level courses in The Program In Studio Art. 6 hrs lct.

Terms Taught

Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Drawing: Unlearning What You See
Drawing is an intuitive act of expression. It serves many purposes: observation, emotional reflection, and creating altered realities beyond the written word. In this course we will learn foundational drawing techniques utilizing different approaches and materials including dry and wet media and basic sculptural principles to understand volume depicting space and figures. We address composition, scale, contour delineation, and tonal values. Developing a personal style will be paramount. Topics relating to drawing in the context of history and issues around who gets represented and how will be discussed. Readings and short lectures will inform these discussions. No prior drawing experience is expected. (Not open to students who have taken ART 0157 or ART 0159) 6 hrs lct.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Foundation Drawing: Making Drawings to Explain the World Around Us
In this course we will learn to make drawings and graphic images to reveal the world we inhabit. Skills learned will include how to make perspective, architecture, value, and contour line systems. We will draw from observation of the natural world including, the human figure, exploring structure, expression, and psychology. We will also make and use photographic images. No previous studio experience is required or expected. 6 hrs. lect./lab

Terms Taught

Spring 2020

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Studio Art I: Drawing
This course is a complete and thorough basic drawing course. Mediums used will be pencil, charcoal, and ink, among others. Work will be done from observation and invention. Line, perspective, value, and composition will be discussed. Assignments will involve students with the formal and technical aspects of drawing and with the idea of drawing as an individual means of expression. No prior drawing experience is assumed or expected. This course is required of all art majors and minors. 6 hrs. lect./lab

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Visual Storytelling Through the Lens
This photo-based studio course examines the ways images work together in succession to build narratives. Students will study contemporary and historical approaches to the photo essay in addition to authoring their own stories with images they have taken or sourced by other means. While we will discuss the basics of image making, the class is focused on the sequencing of images. Students may use any type of camera for this class including cell phone cameras and no prior photographic knowledge is required. The class will culminate in a web-based slideshow and printed book projects for each individual student. 6 hrs. lect/dsc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Intro to Sculpture-Form and Space
What defines a sculpture? How do we make a sculpture? How do we talk about sculpture? What purpose does sculpture have? In this foundational, 3-dimensional art class, we will address fundamental sculpture concepts by considering form, function, scale, volume, and ideas behind the tactile world. Students will learn useful techniques such as: basic welding and woodworking; as well as how to use less traditional materials like rubbers, plastics, and foams. Through a series of sculpture-making projects we will learn to control these methods in creating our own art objects. Slide presentations of contemporary and historical artworks will integrate individual instruction and group critiques. No experience is required or expected. 6 hrs. lect., lab

Terms Taught

Fall 2020

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Topics in Contemporary Art
The term "contemporary art" names not only artworks made over the past half-century, but the art-historical discourse that attempts to explain them, the network of museums and exhibition spaces through which they reach the public, and the global industry in which they are bought and sold. In this course we will examine contemporary art’s relationship to the political, social, and technological developments of our era, attempting to answer the questions: How do we make sense of art produced in the present day? And: How does this art help us understand the world?

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Spacing
In this course we will investigate physical structures encountered daily. Buildings, parks, and infrastructure constitute this built environment, reflecting their societies. But what could abolitionist architecture look like, or how might public space in the U.S. create new social relations? Through lenses of race, class, and gender we will build critical vocabularies around the practice of making space. We will focus on the historical and contemporary embodiment of power, race, and culture of the U.S. through the built environment. This studio class will then present a series of projects addressing basic three-dimensional construction and model making techniques. We will engage historical and contemporary artworks, urban planning, architecture, and poetry from perspectives of resistance to dominant modes of constructing space.

Terms Taught

Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023

Requirements

AMR, ART, SOC

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Course Description

Notes from the Woodshed: Sculpture, Abstraction, and Improvisation
This class takes its title from a book of writing by the black American visual artist Jack Whitten (1939-2018). Whitten’s title itself borrows from a tradition in jazz music, ‘the woodshed’ was a metaphorical place to practice, experiment and develop new ideas before taking them public. We engage the classroom as our own ‘woodshed’, creating sculptural form through close looking, response, and improvisation. Students will develop the basic skills and visual language for creating sculpture using wood, foam, Magic-Sculpt, and found materials. We will read Whitten’s book ‘Notes from the Woodshed’, and other texts that contextualize the rich histories of abstract sculpture made by black Americans in the 20th century. No former experience with art is necessary to take this class.

Terms Taught

Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

Requirements

AMR, ART, HIS

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Course Description

Ruins and Rituals
In this course we will examine monuments, memorials, landscape, and cultural memory. The title comes from a 1979 sculptural work by the black feminist artist Beverly Buchanan. Buchanan has described her works as monuments made from earthen materials to remember acts of black resistance in the United States. We will also investigate recent actions to remove and destroy monuments to confederate soldiers and other figures related to colonial violence. This is a studio class incorporating material experimentation and research. Students will work at model scale using paper, wood, plaster, digital photography, and photoshop to propose (anti)monuments for our time.

Terms Taught

Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2024

Requirements

ART, HIS

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Course Description

Making Art in the 21st Century
What is it to be an artist in the 21st century? How can seeing and making art help us understand our own time and place? In this course, we will examine some of the many permutations of visual artistic practice in our era, trace the art-historical roots of these contemporary forms, and analyze art’s relationship to political, social, and technological developments across the globe. Students will explore these topics by creating their own artworks in response to studio-based assignments, employing both traditional and digital art media. No prior art-making experience is required.

Terms Taught

Fall 2024

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

CMD+Z: Infinite Possibilities of The Digital Studio
In this foundation design course we will explore various aspects of design including 2D composition, color theory, image editing, and typography while developing literacy in graphics software using the Adobe Creative Suite. Focusing on the comparison of visual communication across global cultures, lectures and assignments will be centered around the ways design intersects with art and socio-political issues. Students will develop creative visual problem-solving and image-making skills that they can apply across many disciplines, learning to communicate and present their ideas effectively. Students will produce two substantial screen-based and print projects over the course of the semester. It is a 100 level beginning level class open to and designed for students with no visual artmaking experience. This course will count as a prerequisite towards 300-level courses in The Program In Studio Art. 6 hrs. lect./lab

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

Requirements

ART, CMP

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Course Description

Figure Drawing I: The Human Body as Expression
Depictions of the human are the longest historical record of our species. In this course we will learn to draw the human body as a key to unlocking that history and your imagination, to create new cultural stories. We will apply foundational knowledge obtained via deep analysis of skeletal/muscular anatomy to axioms of drawing including spatial reasoning using principles of geometry to depict the nude human form from life. You will learn to pictorialize figures meeting your creative intentions using inks, graphite, charcoal, and acrylics. Weekly lectures will survey figurative representation throughout the history of global art. Labs include application of linear perspective, movement, clothing, and implications of adornment. All levels; no pre-req; Content is connective to programs including Dance, Theater, History, and Philosophy. Lecture/Lab

Terms Taught

Fall 2023, Spring 2024

Requirements

ART, CMP, DED

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Course Description

Advanced Drawing: Making Your Mark
In this course students will refine their drawing skills, emphasizing personal growth and a deeper exploration of drawing techniques. An understanding of formal pictorial language and how to effectively communicate through visual means will be stressed. Students will draw from observation employing imagination, abstraction, and unconventional approaches. Exposure to the importance and relevance of both contemporary and historical art will occur through image lectures with an emphasis on critical thinking. Exploration of materials will also be discussed. (ART 0155, 0156, 0157, ART 0159, ART 0185, ART 0200 or by approval) ) 6 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

The Art of Pastel Painting
In this class we will study and apply principles of making images using the medium of dry pastels. Pastel-painting involves sticks of dry pigment bound with gum-arabic and applied by the artist’s hand to paper. Used skillfully it is intense, direct, and expressive. Using pastels we will learn color theory and how to control value and perspective by creating images of still-life, interiors, and the human figure. This studio course will also include image-lectures on the history of pastel in art history. (ART 0156, ART 0157 or ART 0159 or ART 0185 or ART 1128 or ART 1129 or THEA 0101).

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Winter 2022, Winter 2024, Winter 2025

Requirements

ART, WTR

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Course Description

Painting the Figure in Oil
In this course we will learn the how to paint images of human beings. The class will begin with an overview of artistic anatomy and resulting patterns of movement. This initial portion of the semester will focus on color theory and refreshing understanding foundations of describing form. Using this knowledge we will then paint in oil by directly observing the live model outdoors. Part of this class will focus on painting portrait images. Studio work will be accompanied by regular image-lectures of the pan-global history of depicting the human form.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024

Requirements

ART, CMP, HIS

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Course Description

Hybrid Printmaking
In this course we will examine a range of hybrid printmaking techniques. We will work from observation and imagination. We will explore monoprint, relief, and hand-cut/ digital stencil-making applications. Emphasis on non-traditional approaches will be studied through experimentation and collaboration. Students’ voices will be developed through guided exploration of thematic projects. Texture, value, surface, colors, marks, and pattern will be discussed. Students will be exposed to the importance and relevance of both contemporary art and historical art through image-lectures with an emphasis on critical thinking. Prior drawing experience expected. (Open to students who have taken ART0155, ART0156, ART 0157, ART 0159, ART0185, or ART0200) 6 hrs lab/lct.

Terms Taught

Spring 2023

Requirements

ART, CMP

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Course Description

Scratching the Surface
In this course we will explore studio instruction in traditional and contemporary methods of intaglio printmaking with a critical emphasis on different methods of working directly on the plate. The general term intaglio (from the Italian intagliare, which means to engrave, carve, or cut) covers a multitude of processes. The incised line in the plate holds the ink while the surface is wiped clean. Only the line prints when paper is placed on the plate and both are run through the etching press. The course is augmented by slide lectures to provide the students with a thorough background in the intaglio medium as well as other drawing based mediums. Depending on resources, students may have the opportunity to be a part of an intensive, collaborative print project to produce an edition of prints with a professional artist. (ART 0157, ART 0158, ART 0159 or by approval) 6 hrs. lect./lab

Terms Taught

Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Sequential Intaglio
In this course students will explore studio instruction in traditional and contemporary methods of intaglio printmaking such as dry point, aquatint, vernis mou, spit bite, hard ground, and line etching. Once the plate is made, it’s possible to print it multiple times so students may choose to manipulate the image during the printing process, making each image and final print look different. Exposure to contemporary and historical examples and the manifold technical possibilities that produce very different artistic expressions will be discussed in class. Students will receive tutorials and take part in individual and group critiques. (any intro level ART course or by approval) 6hrs. lect./lab

Terms Taught

Spring 2020

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Painting the Human Face
In this lecture and lab course we will create drawings and paintings of the human visage. Our class begins with an in-depth anatomical study of the human head, neck, and upper torso. This will lead us to analyze ways previous art of America and Europe has mapped forms of the human face to communicate expressive content in painting. Then, using oil paint on paper, panel, and canvas we will work from the live model to design our own contemporary images of human beings. Our goals will be imaginative expression of psychologies of those we depict and the stories they project. (Any Studio Art; THEA set design; or FMMC animation courses.)

Terms Taught

Spring 2023

Requirements

AMR, ART, EUR

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Course Description

Silkscreen Printmaking
In this course students will explore the silkscreen medium with guided studio instruction. This will include paper stencil method, film stencil method, photographic stencil method, and multicolor printing. Concentration will be on drawing. Towards the end of the semester, students will learn to use basic computer-aided imagery. Students will explore the roll of silkscreen printing in contemporary art as well as its use in popular culture. Depending on resources, students may have the opportunity to be part of an intensive collaborative print project to produce an edition of prints with a professional artist. (ART 0157, ART 0158, ART 0159 or by approval) 6 hrs. lect./lab

Terms Taught

Spring 2024, Spring 2025

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Risograph: Visually Narrated Zines
The Risograph® fuses old and new printing technologies with the color intensity of a silkscreen but the convenience of a printer, making it the ideal tool for printing zines and other high-volume printed matter. A daily sketchbook practice of drawing, observing and note taking will be the source for your stories. Editing techniques and methods of self-publishing as well as contemporary zine-culture will be covered. We will look at historical and contemporary examples of how artists employ print technology in their work. The class will create a collaborative zine as well as a personal zine. (any intro level ART course or by approval)

Terms Taught

Spring 2020

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Monoprint Printing
Printmaking is ever present in our society tracing back to impressions of prehistoric hands on cave walls all the way to printed signs used at protests. In this course students will explore direct and immediate approaches to printmaking, which include collographs, collage, rubbings, layering, pochoir (also known as stenciling), and hand painted applications. The possibilities of creating complex prints are infinite and often painterly. Using “ghost prints” and found material as a way to generate materials for making edition variables, students will have the opportunity to create unique impressions from both observation and invention.(Prerequisite any 100 level drawing class or by approval) 6 hrs. lect./lab

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Spring 2021

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Oil Painting Outdoors - Visually Interpreting The Landscape Around Us
In this outdoor lab we will create paintings directly from the fall landscape of Middlebury. Using oil paint we will learn how to set up a palette, deploy color theory in picture-making, and apply spatial principles in composing our paintings. Oil on canvas will be our gateway to understanding the natural world, our built environment, and transitory phenomena of weather and light. A portion of the class will address how to incorporate humans and animals into our images. Lecture and readings will address historical and philosophical ideas of landscape in culture. (one intro drawing course). 6 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023

Requirements

ART, CMP, HIS

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Course Description

Portraiture In Oil Painting and Sculpture
In this class we will make images and objects of the human figure. Our approach will be two-fold: We will make glazed-ceramic portrait sculptures, which will be used as the basis for large-scale oil paintings. In doing so, we will learn how artists throughout history made oil paintings by creating and using visual source material. Our paintings will, as the need arises, integrate three-dimensional additions made from fired-ceramic, enameled copper, and/or fused glass. In these ways we will explore concepts of decoration, jewelry, and clothing. We will use digital photography throughout to record, analyze, and invent. In addition to weekly image-based lectures on the history of portraiture and design, the class will be include close, individual instruction within a collaborative workshop atmosphere. (ART 0157, ART 0158, ART 0159 or by approval) 6 hrs. lect./lab

Terms Taught

Spring 2020

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Sculpture I
In this sculpture class we will foreground “process” in the creation of form. We will address a variety of traditional tool and material relationships as well as inventing new and unusual processes with unconventional materials and tools. Parallel to studio-based experimentation we will engage in a weekly practice of critique learning how to process the visual with language. The class will be organized around a series of existing artworks, texts and films that will serve as models to help guide our collective inquiry. (At least one 100 level drawing or digital studio course) 6 hrs. lect/lab

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Photography Now
In this color digital photography course students will sharpen their points of view within the framework of a contemporary photographic practice. Students will learn how to shoot digitally, scan, develop lighting strategies, make large format prints and edit their images into a cohesive body of work. Readings and class discussions will be based on how the photographic image functions in our current culture. Students must have access to 15MP (or bigger) digital SLR camera with manual controls of focus, aperture, and shutter. 3 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Pictures in Space
It is estimated that we see 4,000 to 10,000 images a day. In this class we examine the function and impact of images (photographic and otherwise). Topics of investigation include interactivity, activism, memes, storytelling, and artist/audience relationship. These will be explored through studio-based projects supplemented with readings, individual research, and group assignments. Projects consist of a public art/installation piece, a zine and a website. Exploring research topics from other disciplines is encouraged. A prerequisite of ART150 or ART0195 is recommended but not required. There will be introductory demonstrations designed to bring all students up to the necessary skill level. 6 hrs lect./lab

Terms Taught

Spring 2020

Requirements

ART

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Course Description

Origins of Photography: Shooting Film
In this course students will track photography’s evolution historically and technically as we create lense-based art. We will start in the darkroom making photograms, shooting film with a manual SLR camera, and printing black and white wet process images. The second half of the semester we will continue shooting film while transitioning into scanning and color digital printing. Emphasis will be on development of an individual creative voice through close personal attention. In addition to studio work we will be studying the history of photography. Required: 35mm film SLR camera (preferable) or 8MP (or bigger) DSLR camera manual focus, aperture, and shutter. 6 hrs. lect./lab

Terms Taught

Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025

Requirements

ART, WTR

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Course Description

Special Project
Supervised independent work with a special project proposed by a student or a collaboration between a student and a faculty member on a special project. Admission by permission of a faculty member. 3 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Advanced Studio I
This course is designed for dedicated students who have taken full advantage of the many different modes of creation offered by the Program in Studio Art. Demonstrated visual literacy is essential before entering this course where you will begin developing an individual voice and practice as a young artist.
Designed to help develop a cohesive body of work with a personal point of view, this course provides the basic tools needed to express artistic intentions visually, verbally, and in writing. Weekly group critiques, class discussions about contemporary art theory/art criticism, and regular one-on-one studio visits with the Studio Art faculty and visiting artists provide a broader context for your artwork. This class culminates with a public exhibition curated and promoted by the class as a whole.
In addition, students are guided in the creation of a professional portfolio, including extensive documentation of the artwork produced and multiple versions of an artist statement, both suitable for submission to artist internships, residencies, or graduate schools.
Graduating seniors enrolled in ART 700 will curate, mount and promote a solo thesis exhibition. They will also create and submit a digital portfolio to be archived by the Program in Studio Art.
Interested students should contact the professor a minimum of one (1) week prior to online registration. Provide a transcript of all completed Studio Art courses, images of work created, and a brief, 1-2 page description of the media you intend to use and the subject matter you wish to further investigate. Students are expected to have completed two Studio Art classes in the medium they wish to explore before applying for ART 700. Approval required. 4 hrs sem./lab.

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

Requirements

CW

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Course Description

Advanced Studio II
Approval required. 4 hrs sem./lab

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Advanced Studio III
Approval required. 4 hrs sem./lab

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Senior Independent Study in Studio
Three terms of supervised independent work. Culmination of independent work will be an exhibition. All senior studio art independents will meet for regular group critiques with the studio art faculty and other senior studio independents. (Admission by portfolio review and recommendation of resident faculty member is required.) 3 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Winter 2022, Winter 2023, Winter 2024, Winter 2025

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Course Description

A New World
In this class, students will learn foundational drawing techniques while drawing from observation. Using simple materials like cardboard, 2x4s, burlap, and paper, we will turn the whole classroom into a New World. We will study, shape and determine what kind of new world emerges. Over the course of four weeks, students will produce short animations within this setting of "A New World" using Green Screen technology to combine drawing- and stop-motion animations with 3D Backgrounds. At the conclusion of the month, we will leave this world taking our sketchbooks, drawings and animations (2d and 3d stop motion) as a record of our shared experience. One all-s recording. An all-seeing eye (a wide-angle camera) will capture the rise and fall of this New World in time-lapse. This class counts toward the major as a prerequisite for all 300 level courses. No prior drawing experience is expected. Not open to students who have taken ART0155, ART0156, ART 0157, ART 0159) 9 hrs lab/lct.
Heimo Wallner is a visual artists in whose work animation plays an important role./

Terms Taught

Winter 2023

Requirements

WTR

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Course Description

The Art of Science: Drawing Nature's Forms
In this studio course we will draw from life. Before the advent of photography, natural history art, in addition to celebrating nature’s beauty, served as an important translator of scientific knowledge. The College’s rich natural history collections (mounted specimens, preserved specimens, eggs, study skins, skeletons, herbaria, live specimens in the greenhouse, etc.) will become both our laboratory and studio where we will investigate, inspect, and record nature, and gain inspiration from it. We will acquire knowledge of natural forms through sustained direct observation and drawing. Artistic media will include graphite, charcoal, gouache, watercolor, ink, and tempera. We will examine examples of natural history art from cultures around the world, from its beginnings to today’s digital scientific illustration. No prerequisites.

Kate Gridley is an award-winning artist whose works are in museums and private collections in the U.S. and abroad. Her work includes portraiture, landscapes, still-lives and botanical illustration in an array of media, including oil paint, graphite, pastel, watercolor, gouache, and egg tempera. Website: kategridley.com

Terms Taught

Winter 2024, Winter 2025

Requirements

ART, WTR

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