Three different workshops are offered in drawing. Workshops can also be customized and combined to fit the needs of a particular group.

1. Introduction to Master Drawing

A master drawing is not just an “exceptionally good” version of a normal drawing; it is a completely different language of expression. The artist that wishes to master the art of drawing in the European classical tradition must first understand it as a visual language of form and space that is completely formal and abstract. Participants in this workshop will learn how to not only observe and notate an object with drawing, but to reconstruct and describe it within this extremely effective language of communication. The workshop is designed to provide a path to true mastery of drawing by changing the way participants think about observation and communication.

2. Perspective and the Human Form

Drawing figures in deep perspective has been an intriguing artistic challenge since the Italian Renaissance. Classical drawing employs a rich variety of visual cues that use the anatomical forms of the human body to lead the eye back into pictorial space. Known as foreshortening, this drawing technique is more a collection of symbols, social conventions and visual cues than a result of experience and observation. The workshop will focus on historical examples of foreshortening in painting and drawing, as well as contemporary solutions. Participants will learn to understand the visual devices they must use to communicate the movement of form into space to the viewer. Foreshortening in the context of wide angle, anamorphic and hyperbolic perspective will also be demonstrated.

3. The Art of Chiaroscuro

The Italian word chiaroscuro refers to the movement between light and shadow in a painting or drawing, also known as tonality. Light and shadow are perhaps the most significant visual cues an artist has to communicate the dimensionality of form on a flat surface. Painting and drawing have the possibility of communicating form and space to a viewer with even greater force and clarity than photography because the artist has complete control over the image. Chiaroscuro goes beyond simply describing forms; it can also describe the quality of the light source itself and the nature of the pictorial space. The ability to compose light and shadow is perhaps the most evocative and effective tool in the artist’s arsenal. Participants will learn to manipulate light and shadow in order to increase the drama and atmosphere of their compositions.

Here is a link to a time-lapse demonstration.