Course Syllabus
Drawing A
Prd 1, Room 250 (Butler Building)
Semester 2: Winter-Spring 2023
Instructor Information
Melissa Rioux is the teacher for this course as well as Visual and Performing Arts Dept chair for George Stevens Academy. She joined the GSA community in Sept 2020. She spent ten years teaching and writing curriculum for Publicolor, a not for profit in NYC, and teaching jewelry making at the 92nd St Y before moving home to raise her family in 2015.
School Phone: 374-2808 ext email: m.rioux@georgestevens.org
Office Hours: By Appointment during Prd 4
Textbooks and Other Materials
Students are given sketchbooks that they are expected to work on throughout the course. These should be brought to class each day, and only be left in the classroom for grading. Students are expected to check their Canvas accounts daily for posted material. Students are allowed to sign out materials with the instructors permission and signature.
Additional books TBA
Course Description
In Drawing A/B students will be introduced to the tools, substrates and techniques of Drawing. I both sections, which can be taken as stand alone courses or consecutively to build upon our investigation drawing in it's methods and mediums. An understanding of the 1) Elements of Design and the 2) Principles of Art gained in Art 1 are built upon through different projects that teach both technical and creative skills. The outline for each section will be determined collaboratively with the class and built upon collective student interest. This class is taught using a differentiated approach, the modules may be moved around to meet student need, and the possibility of trips, studio or museum tours added if the opportunity arrises.
Introduction week
- Become familiar with room: studio etiquette
- Expectations and class descriptions
- Relationships and anatomy: hand drawings
- Gridding
- Charcoal self portrait
- Abstract vs Naturalistic intention
- Drawing from life vs. imagination – teaching confidence in creativity
and technical skills
-Figure drawing
-Perspective
-Avante guarde drawing explorations/ techniques (sand drawing, memory drawing, drawing with sticks/stylus)
- Tint, Tone and Shade exercises
- Mastercopy/Master study
- Significance of historical technique
- Plein air landscape study
- palette studies
- Collage drawing, connecting ephemera
Culminating Assessment can look like either:
- End of the semester semi-independent project
- Teacher prompted, but student driven semi-independent project in which
students work on a piece based on skills they’ve acquired (usually has a theme
and certain criteria, but open to interpretation)
- Project that can bridge with the community
Learning Objectives
- Demonstrate skills in drawing that show form and space as well as the ability to work with both limited and expanded color palettes.
- Describe the process and techniques of drawing, elevated by the articulations and understanding of the elements of art and principles of design.
- Demonstrate the understanding of positive and negative space.
- Recognize the vocabulary of the visual arts.
- Analyze the creative process and its role in thinking and connecting art with other curriculums.
Assessment and Grading
Assessment will reflect the effort in learning skills and techniques in concert with a students's artistic outcomes and the cultivation of their creativity. There will be the copying and study of Master works as well as the time for original works. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students will be graded on their sustained use of a sketchbook for both classwork and homework. Assignments will be posted and submitted through Canvas. Class Field Trips TBA.
Timely submission of work is encouraged, there is no guarantee that late work will be accepted.
Attendance and Participation
Students are expected to arrive on time, with their projects/sketchbooks, prepared to work. All students are expected to participate in classroom discussion and class critique to the best of their abilities. If a student is expecting to miss multiple days of school it is their responsibility to keep up and to communicate about their absence with the teacher.
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|