Foundation in Observational Drawing

Enhance your portfolio by looking at the world from a new perspective, and building your understanding of observational drawing fundamentals.

Session 2: July 9–21, 2023

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An instructor and student look at a pastel still life drawing.

An example of a student's portrait from the Foundation in Drawing class.

A charcoal still life created in the Foundation in Drawing class.

A colored pencil drawing created in the Foundation in Drawing class.

Students drawing a still life using dramatic lighting.

An example of a portrait created in the Foundation in Drawing class.

This class will cover the fundamental elements of drawing, while focusing on creative problem-solving. The primary goal is to enhance your prospects for building a better portfolio by strengthening your observational skills and rendering techniques. Throughout the course, you’ll experiment with a multitude of drawing materials to build your artistic repertoire.

Daily demos and a wide variety of projects will help you gain a greater understanding of the creative process, from initial sketches and layouts to the finishing details. Your time will be spent exploring and creating art in areas such as life drawing, landscape studies, and figurative work. Throughout the session, we will have group critiques to discuss creative possibilities and unique solutions to design problems.

Projects

The first week of this course will focus on building foundational skills in traditional materials such as graphite, charcoal and pencil. Students will sharpen their skills through observational renderings of still-lifes, portraits and perspective drawings.

During the second week, students will experience life drawing at a college level through live figure drawing. Color will be introduced with a review of how light and color can bring depth and atmosphere to an image. Students will strengthen their artistic vocabulary through group critique and will leave with a portfolio of application-ready pieces.

Projects and topics that will be explored include line and weight in drawing, perspective, setting up your workstation and prepping a drawing, using a value scale, utilizing a grid system, observational drawing, figure drawing, drawing with color and light, and selecting pieces for a portfolio.

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Learn about CIA's Foundation program.

Instructor

Eddie Mitchell received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in painting and drawing in 1987. While having maintained a full-time studio for the past 27 years, Eddie has taught art classes at CIA for Continuing Education evening classes and Pre-College, as well as Lakeland Community College. His work is represented in galleries across the country. Eddie has been in over 150 art shows, created numerous commissioned pieces for public locations, and has sold over 1,000 paintings.