Syllabus and the New School Year

Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible. - Paul Klee

And we're back - a new school year, a new class to teach, and the scent of autumn has finally come to grace the air in New York City. Here for all to see is our syllabus for the Fall semester:

Figure Drawing III
Issues of Technique and Expression
New York University
Tisch School of the Arts
Department of Design for Stage and Film

Grading will be based entirely on boldness, generosity of spirit, and personal growth in class.

Class Schedule

September 3
First Principles of Figure Drawing and Costume Sketches – a review of the how and why of figure drawing
• The illusion of form
• Volume and Form
• The major masses of the body
• Review of proportion and general principles of anatomy – the major landmarks

September 10
Balance and Force
The Standing Pose and Power of Gravity
• The Line of Balance
• Opposing rhythms and directional forces
• Tradition and the Contrapposto

September 17
Body Types – the range of sizes and shapes in the human form
• Pears, Cylinders and Wedges
• Changing Ideals of Beauty

September 24
Watercolor Warm Up
• Review of watercolor fundamentals
• Color theory – purity and mud

October 1
Age and Body History
The changing proportions and appearance of the body from infancy to maturity
• The body’s continuum and this moment in time

October 8
Hair!
• Color and Shape
• Social History and Meaning
• Grey Hair (draw the instructor)

October 15
Watercolor Part II
• Warm and Cool
• Light and Shadows

Exercises
• Color palette variations – warm and cool compositions

October 22
Fabrics
• Review of fabric types
• Sheen and reflection
• Layers and Transparency

October 29
Fabrics II
• Fur and leather
• The life of fabric
• How clothes don’t fit

November 5
Fabrics III
Patterns and weaves – painting opaquely

November 12
Opaque painting and different carriers
• Acrylics and matte mediums
• Gessoed surfaces

November 19
Introduction to the 21st Century
Photoshop and the computer

November 26
Photoshop and the computer II

December 3
Figure Drawing Extravaganza
Multiple models and special guests
Nonstop drawing rave

Art is our best way of connecting with life, and it is our best way of shielding ourselves from life.
- Thomas Mann