ART 235 Figure Drawing: Advanced Topics

Lecture Hours: 2
Lab Hours: 4
Credits: 4

Continues figure drawing skill development increasing focus on intention, media, anatomy, expression, and accuracy. Offers lectures, demonstrations, and continued individualized training in representational figure drawing skills begun in ART 131 and ART 234. Emphasize anatomy, proportion, composition, and analytical skills. Introduces additional media, subjective or expressive drawing approaches, and vocabulary that build skills in critically analyzing drawings.

Prerequisite: Placement into WR 115 (or higher), or completion of WR 090 (or higher); and completion of ART 131 and ART 234; or consent of instructor based on portfolio review. (All prerequisite courses must be completed with a grade of C or better.)
Student Learning Outcomes:

Exhibit a solid knowledge of analytical and classical techniques in the establishment of accurate shape, proportion, and spatial relationships in the depiction of the human figure.
Utilize effective figure and ground integration, through techniques such as contour line variation, implied line, and chiaroscuro to create dynamic drawings.
Design and execute drawings that exhibit an awareness of composition, as it applies to organizational principles and/or to meaning (from and content).
Draw the figure based on a fundamental understanding of anatomy and its role in the dynamics of movement.
Demonstrate creativity in generating ideas and in the use of media and drawing approaches in support of conceptually based assignments.
Demonstrate skill in the use of drawing materials and a focused concentration in the production of assignments.
Use relevant terminology to critically analyze works of art when engaged in diagnosing projects in process or during critiques. (Visual, verbal, and written)
Recognize the importance of the human figure in visual literacy and within a historical and contemporary art continuum.

Content Outline

Continued Exploration of Essential Drawing Principles in Relation to the Human Figure
- The human figure
  - Live model and classroom etiquette
  - Sighting in relation to the human form
  - Comparative proportions in the male and female figure
- Gesture drawing or rapid contour drawing
  - Seeing is the key
  - Using axis lines
  - Keeping it simple
  - Setting the pace
  - Working from the inside out
- Enhancing the illusion of volume and space in the human form
  - General-to-specific approach to form and value in figure drawing
  - Line variation in figure drawing
  - Scaling techniques in figure drawing
- Mapping the figure in space
  - Drawing the figure in an observed environment
  - Using straight-line construction
  - Creating visual paths of movement
- The figure and anatomy
  - Artistic anatomy: surface anatomy of the figure
  - Observing contour changes as muscles flex and extend
  - Major bones of the human skeletal structure
  - Bony and other landmarks in the figure
  - Superficial muscles of the human figure
  - Anatomical terminology
Continued Development of Compositional Skills
- Definition and principles
- Variable compositional elements to consider
- Using viewfinder to assist in composition
- General guidelines
  - Impact of negative and positive space
  - Impact of format
  - General placement concerns
  - Visual intent
  - Impact of viewpoint
- The Golden Section (optional)
- Historical context: evolution of figurative representation in art
Developing Ideas and Drawing Approaches for Expression/Meaning
- Observational objective drawing versus subjective (interpretative) drawing
- Process as discovery
- Ideation: generating ideas
  - Divergent thinking
  - Form and Content
  - Making connections (synthesizing images/ideas)
  - Brainstorming
  - Maintain ongoing visual ideal investigations
Continued Technical Refinement of Essential Drawing Skills and Approaches to Drawing
- Methods of drawing the figure
  - Line
    - Contour approach: analytical and expressive qualities
    - Gesture approach: analytical and expressive qualities
  - Value (range, identification, contrast)
  - Integration of multiple methods of drawing (see above)
- Ways of accurately seeing the figure in space
  - Analytical techniques for spatial organization
  - Classical techniques for spatial organization
Continued Development of Skills: Diagnosing, Problem Solving, and Critiques
- Diagnosing problems in drawings
  - Traditional versus non-traditional drawings
  - Traditional value of unity versus disjunctive modernism
  - Style, expression, and meaning
  - Completion concerns
  - Compositional problems
- Intentions vs. results
  - Discovering disparity
  - Descriptive feedback
  - Interpretive feedback
  - Written feedback
- Critiques
  - Group critiques
  - Individual critiques with instructor
  - Written critiques, self-evaluations, and analysis of assigned historical drawing examples