Adult Programs | Drawing & Painting Atelier
An Atelier devoted to Foundation Training in Drawing & Painting
Instructor: Mark Kang-O'Higgins
Monday - Friday, 9:30am to 4:30pm
September 14 - June 25 [35 weeks]
AT0910: 2009-2010 annual tuition: $6,930
Art is a language; a certain fluency must be gained in order to express oneself freely.
Mark Kang-O'Higgins, the Drawing & Painting Atelier instructor, emphasizes drafting and painting skills to empower you with the language you need to achieve full visual expression.
This course cultivates fluency with anatomical and technical knowledge, but also goes far beyond technique. You are encouraged to find your own forms of expression as you build familiarity with many different approaches to the figure embodied in historical and contemporary drawing and painting techniques.
The basics of observation, proportion and anatomy are vital to the understanding and representation of the figure and forms part of the course curriculum. To this end, you engage in exercises that explore tonal relationships, light, measurement, figure structure and anatomy, and are expected to have a solid understanding of these issues in order to progress in the atelier.
Instructor: Mark Kang-O'Higgins
Daily Studio Practice
This atelier is a figure-drawing and -painting boot camp that emphasizes hard work, hands-on practice and a sense of urgency and concentration when creating. The atelier focuses heavily on life drawing and life painting. To that end, a model is available three weeks out of every month during the mornings. In the afternoons, you work on site in the studio, continuing assigned and personal projects.
Kang-O’Higgins gives slide presentations, lectures and technical demonstrations help you add to your arsenal of skills as you learn to place your work into a wider historical and contemporary context. Topics covered include line and tone, light and shadow, color theory and mixing, and proportion and anatomy, as well as the different approaches for drawing and painting from life. There are two formal life-drawing teaching days and an instructed afternoon studio session each week. The atelier also includes group outings and field trips and hosts guest speakers during the year.
This atelier is a figure-drawing and -painting boot camp that emphasizes hard work, hands-on practice and a sense of urgency and concentration when creating. The atelier focuses heavily on life drawing and life painting. To that end, a model is available three weeks out of every month during the mornings. In the afternoons, you work on site in the studio, continuing assigned and personal projects.
Kang-O’Higgins gives slide presentations, lectures and technical demonstrations help you add to your arsenal of skills as you learn to place your work into a wider historical and contemporary context. Topics covered include line and tone, light and shadow, color theory and mixing, and proportion and anatomy, as well as the different approaches for drawing and painting from life. There are two formal life-drawing teaching days and an instructed afternoon studio session each week. The atelier also includes group outings and field trips and hosts guest speakers during the year.
Atelier Student: Denise Takahashi
Building Foundation Skills
The core elements of drawing and painting are the same no matter what the level at which you start. The aim of this atelier is to equip you with a thorough working knowledge of these fundamental elements. As such, learning in the atelier progresses in stages. We all learn at different paces; your transition from one phase to the next depends on a firm grounding in phase before.
The depiction of any object (life model, cast model or still life) necessarily involves a search for its essential nature. The right balance of technical knowledge and accuracy combined with perception or gesture are vital in the expression of this essential nature. These issues are important not just as an end unto themselves, but as a means to an end. The aim of this program is to produce pictures, not just life studies, and to give full vent to the pictorial expression of your response to the nature of the sitter.
The core elements of drawing and painting are the same no matter what the level at which you start. The aim of this atelier is to equip you with a thorough working knowledge of these fundamental elements. As such, learning in the atelier progresses in stages. We all learn at different paces; your transition from one phase to the next depends on a firm grounding in phase before.
The depiction of any object (life model, cast model or still life) necessarily involves a search for its essential nature. The right balance of technical knowledge and accuracy combined with perception or gesture are vital in the expression of this essential nature. These issues are important not just as an end unto themselves, but as a means to an end. The aim of this program is to produce pictures, not just life studies, and to give full vent to the pictorial expression of your response to the nature of the sitter.
Atelier Student: Nora Langan
Independent Study
You work on independent projects that increase in complexity as time progresses. You have the option of individual instruction as well as group or private critiques. You are encouraged to take full advantage of your studio time and to participate in supplemental classes, such as visiting lectures and field trips to museums, galleries, artists’ studios and extended overnight tours. You complete an independent work project by the end of the academic year, take part in a quarterly review of your work and submit work for exhibitions hosted by the Academy or Academy-sponsored exhibitions at independent galleries.
You work on independent projects that increase in complexity as time progresses. You have the option of individual instruction as well as group or private critiques. You are encouraged to take full advantage of your studio time and to participate in supplemental classes, such as visiting lectures and field trips to museums, galleries, artists’ studios and extended overnight tours. You complete an independent work project by the end of the academic year, take part in a quarterly review of your work and submit work for exhibitions hosted by the Academy or Academy-sponsored exhibitions at independent galleries.
Atelier Student: Curtis McDowell
Phase I:
Value Studies: Value steps in drawing and painting, tonal studies, focal points.
Light Studies: Shadow globes, planes of light in the head and figure including ambient, projected and reflected light as well as the overall envelope of light, focal points.
Measurement and Sighting: Head sizing, comparison lines, cross comparisons, sight sizing, block-in, analytical drawing of lines and angles.
Master Copies: Work of contemporary and past masters, to be understood, learned from and reproduced through drawing and painting throughout the year; on-site museum copying.
Research Project: Catalogue folder of three images from 10 draftspeople and 10 painters; set goals for own work.
Reading List: Suggested and required reading material pertinent to art practice, theory and history.
Cast Drawing and Drafting Methods: Block-in using pencil and charcoal, wipe-out in charcoal.
Life Drawing: Drafting methods, gesture drawing (urgency), blind drawing, sustained drawing, block-in (over-cuts, outline and negative space), working from inside-out (outline reduction and the emergent figure), line and tone, open and closed form (passage), light (focal points), differences between pictures and studies, sculptural understanding versus pictorial understanding, poster studies, focal point, how you see versus what you see, memory drawing.
Anatomy & Proportion: Torso including ribcage and pelvis, head, hands, feet, limbs, function and form, weight, cross cuts.
Figural Structure: Planar conception of the figure, geometric conception of the figure, sculpting geometric figure constructions, sculptural understanding of form.
Historical Drawing Techniques (Optional): Drawings using metal-point (copper and silver), soap-stone, red chalk, white chalk and ash.
Value Studies: Value steps in drawing and painting, tonal studies, focal points.
Light Studies: Shadow globes, planes of light in the head and figure including ambient, projected and reflected light as well as the overall envelope of light, focal points.
Measurement and Sighting: Head sizing, comparison lines, cross comparisons, sight sizing, block-in, analytical drawing of lines and angles.
Master Copies: Work of contemporary and past masters, to be understood, learned from and reproduced through drawing and painting throughout the year; on-site museum copying.
Research Project: Catalogue folder of three images from 10 draftspeople and 10 painters; set goals for own work.
Reading List: Suggested and required reading material pertinent to art practice, theory and history.
Cast Drawing and Drafting Methods: Block-in using pencil and charcoal, wipe-out in charcoal.
Life Drawing: Drafting methods, gesture drawing (urgency), blind drawing, sustained drawing, block-in (over-cuts, outline and negative space), working from inside-out (outline reduction and the emergent figure), line and tone, open and closed form (passage), light (focal points), differences between pictures and studies, sculptural understanding versus pictorial understanding, poster studies, focal point, how you see versus what you see, memory drawing.
Anatomy & Proportion: Torso including ribcage and pelvis, head, hands, feet, limbs, function and form, weight, cross cuts.
Figural Structure: Planar conception of the figure, geometric conception of the figure, sculpting geometric figure constructions, sculptural understanding of form.
Historical Drawing Techniques (Optional): Drawings using metal-point (copper and silver), soap-stone, red chalk, white chalk and ash.
Atelier Student: H. Lee Holcolmb
Phase II:
Cast Painting: Block-in, wipe-out, monotone painting, grisaille, cast as still life (limited to full-color), paint value studies/value scale, color charts, color light studies.
Master Copies: Contemporary and old master paintings to be copied and understood, on-site and museum copying.
Life Painting: Gesture (urgency), light, block-in, wipe-out, inside-out, monotone, grisaille, warm/cool palette, limited palettes, full-color palettes, color theory, speed work versus sustained work, alla prima versus indirect painting, pictures versus studies.
Portraiture: Light, focal point, block-in, head, hands, feet, half-length and full-length portraits.
Composition: Modes of composition including classical, baroque, gothic, static, dynamic and expressive, multi-figure compositions, focal point.
Cast Painting: Block-in, wipe-out, monotone painting, grisaille, cast as still life (limited to full-color), paint value studies/value scale, color charts, color light studies.
Master Copies: Contemporary and old master paintings to be copied and understood, on-site and museum copying.
Life Painting: Gesture (urgency), light, block-in, wipe-out, inside-out, monotone, grisaille, warm/cool palette, limited palettes, full-color palettes, color theory, speed work versus sustained work, alla prima versus indirect painting, pictures versus studies.
Portraiture: Light, focal point, block-in, head, hands, feet, half-length and full-length portraits.
Composition: Modes of composition including classical, baroque, gothic, static, dynamic and expressive, multi-figure compositions, focal point.
Atelier Student: Celia Nicks
Phase III:
Life-Size Figure Drawing: Composition, sustained drawings, figure in environment, rhythm.
Life-Size Figure Painting: Composition, sustained drawings, figure in environment, rhythm.
Figure and Environment: Focal point, rhythms of piece.
Multi-Figure Compositions: Expands on Life Drawing and Life Painting as well as Life-Size Drawing and Life-Size Painting.
Memory Drawings: Drawing the figure from memory, visualization techniques.
Figure in Free Fall and Imaginative Compositions: Geometric conceptualization of figure, visualization technique and spatial rotation.
Art Theory and Practice: Discussion groups, field trips, school, gallery and studio visits, extended tours; reading list; your work as part of the conversation that is art; group, individual and buddy critiques; guest speakers and suggested supplemental courses.
Personal Project: Art project, an exploration and culmination of research and practice of art, your personal vision, leading to public exhibition of work.
Life-Size Figure Drawing: Composition, sustained drawings, figure in environment, rhythm.
Life-Size Figure Painting: Composition, sustained drawings, figure in environment, rhythm.
Figure and Environment: Focal point, rhythms of piece.
Multi-Figure Compositions: Expands on Life Drawing and Life Painting as well as Life-Size Drawing and Life-Size Painting.
Memory Drawings: Drawing the figure from memory, visualization techniques.
Figure in Free Fall and Imaginative Compositions: Geometric conceptualization of figure, visualization technique and spatial rotation.
Art Theory and Practice: Discussion groups, field trips, school, gallery and studio visits, extended tours; reading list; your work as part of the conversation that is art; group, individual and buddy critiques; guest speakers and suggested supplemental courses.
Personal Project: Art project, an exploration and culmination of research and practice of art, your personal vision, leading to public exhibition of work.
Atelier student: Tracy Banaszynski
Atelier Requirements:
- You are asked to complete one drawn self-portrait for the first class in whatever media you choose
- Bring an example of at least one life drawing and/or painting for the first class (this can be from a past course)
- You are expected to be present every weekday during the semester
- You are expected to present work for three reviews during the year
- Come to class with proper materials
- Come on time so as not to disturb posing sessions
- Utilize class time with maximum quiet and serious effort
- You are asked to do one drawn self-portrait for the first class in whatever media you choose
- Bring an example of at least one life drawing and/or painting for the first class (this can be from a past course)
- You are expected to be present every weekday during the semester
- You are expected to present work for three reviews during the year
- Come to class with proper materials
- Come on time so as not to disturb posing sessions
- Utilize class time with maximum quiet and serious effort
Instructor: Mark Kang-O'Higgins
Learn more about Mark Kang-O'Higgins on his web site, www.kangohiggins.com