The Elevator Pitch
Drawing & Imaging brings together digital and analog techniques to foreground seeing, visual thinking, and the nuanced language of visual communication. Students embed ideas in 2-D works by translating what they experience in the world around them and push the boundaries by generating ideas using their imagination. The course introduces Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, painting, drawing, collage and photography.
Official Course Description
From the Course Catalogue
Drawing / Imaging explores how meaning is constructed and communicated through two-dimensional images. In this course you will use both traditional drawing techniques and digital imaging methods to consider the conceptual, aesthetic and formal qualities of visual representation. You will be encouraged to make work that feels risky and unknown and to work in ways that are unfamiliar. As you build skills of observation and representation, you will be guided through a process of attempting, failing and learning to trust.
Drawing is a multidisciplinary tool. It is a form of thinking that can be used to help us see, imagine, strategize or give shape to an idea. This course will introduce you to a range of materials and media from charcoal and pencil to collage and photography, as well as Illustrator and Photoshop. Sketchbooks will be used to brainstorm, experiment, process and pursue curiosities. Alongside studio based projects, the class has regular discussions, critique and written responses. Writing and conversation will place images in an historical and cultural context and create space for an exchange of ideas. The skills developed in this course are foundational to all majors and disciplines. Inflections for the course are: Language, People and Places & Things.
How One Instructor Describes This Course
“Drawing is thinking. It is an integral part of visually responding to the world and manifesting ideas in material. The act of drawing forces us to slow down, so that we are able to perceive and observe more effectively. Drawing allows us to see the understructure, and then begin to translate it. Once learned, it is a skill that can be used to communicate with intention and purpose.
In this course we address the challenges of image making while gaining familiarity with tools ranging from pencil and charcoal to Photoshop and Illustrator. Building from a traditional base of observational drawing, we delve into the broad diversity of images encountered today. For each individual section, I incorporate short exercises and assignments designed to scaffold concepts slowly; the end goal is a more complex student project based on personal interest, utilizing the aforementioned skills.”
-Kenneth Millington
Week by Week Layout and Project Examples
“For each section, I use small exercises/ assignments to teach small discrete concepts/ skills that will scaffold and build toward a more complex project of their own personal interest.”
-Kenneth Millington
Drawing from Observation and Foundation Drawing Skills
Weeks 1 – 2
We begin the semester with a series of warm-up exercises that emphasize line, value, and shape. Next, we draw from observation at the Natural History Museum, and lastly, foundation figure anatomy is introduced using a live model.
Internal Landscape
Weeks 2 – 6
Once set with foundational drawing skills, students begin their first project — an investigation of perception and representation. In this project students engage in visual and psychological explorations using both digital and analog tools and drawing techniques.
Intro to Photoshop: Students use Photoshop to merge photos of charcoal anatomical drawings.
Figure/ Ground Collages: Students use Illustrator and a digital pen to manipulate photographs and figure drawings.
Color Theory Introduction: Students use Illustrator & Photoshop & Digital Color worksheets to explore the various ways color can harness or evoke emotion.
Cinematic Space
Weeks 6 – 9
The second project is an analysis of structure and representation. Here students explore linear and planar perspectives while drawing from observation. They then take these skills and apply them to an imagined space, culminating in a digital painting in Photoshop.
Perspective Life Drawing
Invented Photoshop Perspective Space: Imagined 1 or 2- Point Perspective of geometric shapes (analogous color)
Color Perspective Illustrator Digital Drawings: Pen tool and perspective grid tools are used to recreate photo perspective in complementary color palettes.
Composition Exercise– Asymmetry & Symmetry
Poster Project
Week 9 – 12
This project combines gestalt collage with Illustrator. Through a scaffolded learning and making process, students create visual assets of type, icons, illustration, color story, and layout. The end result is a self-designed poster that communicates a specific goal or meaning.
Experimental Typography – Type tools and an exploration of density, figure/ground, positive/ negative space, Swiss Punk/International Style
Gestalt Theory Exercises – Black and White shape collages
Compositional Layouts – four layout approaches: grid, diagonal, concentric, Swiss, Punk.
15 – Icon Creation– Semiotics and symbol-making.
Portrait Abstraction
Weeks 12 – 15
In the final project students explore abstraction through both analog and digital portraiture. The assignment includes research and reference gathering with the aim of creating an iterated abstract portrait.
Head and Skull Studies – Life drawing studying the structure and form of the head
Color Head Studies – Small Complementary Color Palette Paintings using photos of friends taken with strong light/shadows
Grid Transfer – Scaling up a drawing to a different surface.
What Students Take With Them When They Leave
“This course focuses on image making using a variety of digital and traditional methods, often bridging the two. As a result, students become adept at generating ideas and bringing them to form, communicating through 2-dimensional works, and practicing visual analysis – relevant making skills in all majors.
Additionally, students hone these skills through group critique and comparative analysis, thus gaining confidence in critical, constructive discourse. Students also learn how to observe carefully and slowly, further strengthening the critical muscle of visual apprehension.
At the end of the course, with their ideas brought to life in concrete, physical forms, students better understand the stages of the making process — the sequential aggregation of brainstorming, reference gathering, sketching, iterating, and finalizing.”
– Kenneth Millington