Print Syllabus
Marcelle Wiggins, Instructor
California State University, Sacramento
Phone: 278-6443
Office Hours: M, 5-6 pm, KDM 191, by appointment
Email: wiggins@csus.edu
Website: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/w/wigginsm/
Beginning Drawing Art 20A Section 2
Credit: 3 units
Prerequisite: none
Room / Time: KDM 266 - M/W, 11 am - 1:50 pm, 9/3/03 -12/17/03
Portfolios & Sketchbooks Due: Wednesday, 10/22/03 and Wednesday, 12/10/03
Midterm Quiz: Wednesday, 10/22/03
Self-initiated Project and Paper Due: Monday, 11/24/03
Final: Wednesday, 12/17/03, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm
Text: None. Selected reading assignments, Drawing, A Contemporary Approach, Claudia Betti, Teel Sale, Wadsworth Publishing, ISBN: 015501580X, CSUS Reserve Library.
Course Description: Introduction to various techniques of and approaches to drawing, using still life, landscapes, and figures. Art 20A is an Area C2 Course (Introduction to the Arts) in the General Education Program.
Course Content: Introduction to basic drawing techniques, using materials such as charcoal, pencil, pastel, ink and paper to create form-space relationships through line, value, shape, perspective, and composition. Emphasis is on developing observational drawing skills and visual decision-making. Subject matter includes still life, landscape and figures. Students develop flexibility and confidence in drawing skills and awareness of drawing methods, materials, and historical references. Upon exiting the course, the student will achieve competence in using pencil, brush, charcoal, ink, pastel, and paper collage to create finished compositions on paper.
Learning Objectives:
• Understand thee drawing process through the study of drawing fundamentals, various working methods, a range of media, and a variety of subject matter areas.
• Discover, analyze, and initiate various forms of critical response to drawing.
• Integrate an understanding of the cultural contributions of a variety of artists.
• Demonstrate through drawing, critique, and or written assignments, an understanding of the discipline to the wider field of all the arts.
• Integrate through drawing, critique, and or written assignments, an appreciation of the contributions of one area of drawing to visual cultural heritage.
Requirements: Completion of all assignments. No late assignments accepted. Necessary materials must be brought to class. Sketchbook homework will be assigned each week. Oral participation in classroom critiques and discussions. Student is responsible for getting assignments and information distributed in class. Regular attendance, make-up work for absences. There will be a multiple choice midterm quiz on drawing terms, a written final exam on perspective types and a one page term paper concerning the process of making assigned reading and subject matter. Course outline is subject to modification, depending on student response.
• Pagers or cell phones are not allowed to be on inside the classroom.
Grading Policy: Grades are dependent upon evaluation of all course work completed (inside and out of class), attendance, and participation in discussions, class projects, and critiques. A term paper, in-class midterm & final painting projects are required. 50% of the total grade is the portfolio (reviewed at midterm & one class prior to the final). The remaining 50% of the grade is an average of selected individual assignments and sketchbook. A =100-94, A- =93-90, B+ =89-87, B =86-84, B- = 83-80, C+ =79-77, C =76-74, C- =73-70, D+ =69-67, D =66-64, D- =63-60, F =59-0. Please refer to the CSUS University Policy Manual for definitions of grade symbols at the following web address: http://www.csus.edu/admbus/umanual/UMG05150.htm
Attendance Policy: A maximum of 3 absences are allowed. Every absence thereafter will result in a .5 reduction in the total grade average. (Note: 3 tardies =1 absence).
View and print schedule and homework details at: Art 20A Weekly Schedule
Weekly Summary:
1. Discussion of course content, grading policy and required materials (list provided by
instructor), as well as course
objectives. Students introduce themselves and write about their expectations for the course
Instructor will show slides of beginning drawing student work.
2. Exercises in shape and volume. Two, three, and five-value analysis of simple geometric
still-life forms, using charcoal.
3. Continued exercises in shape and volume. Sharpening observation skills to include a
complete range of value
using charcoal, rubbing and erasure. Introduction to the use of variety in line and drawing
organic forms using
pens and pencils. Turn in contour line project at end of class.
4. Negative and positive space and the use of collage, due next class. Collage project critique. Comparison of historical and contemporary social critics Daumier and Sue Coe.
5. Continued exercises in value use. Rembrandt portrait in charcoal due at end of class. Cross-hatch project begins using black waterproof roller ball pens. Subject matter landscape or skeleton, depending on weather.
6. Continue cross-hatch project, due at end of class. Critique on cross-hatch, sketches from video of Kalahari Bushmen. Introduction to overlapping forms project. Students research assigned terms.
7. Begin overlapping forms project (Primitive Art Project) in charcoal on Arches cover paper.
8. Finish overlapping forms project. Portfolios & sketchbooks due. Mid term quiz & drawing. Primitive Art project due. Read pp. 209-233 (Chapter 8, (Conventions for Creating Spatial Illusion) in Drawing, A Contemporary Approach by Claudia Betti and Teel Sale, on reserve in the library. Write a proposal for a self-initiated outside project due Nov. 24, which includes a two-page paper on the process of image development in the project.
9. Discussion of types of perspective in the reading assignment reviewed. Linear perspective demonstration, and practice. A linear perspective drawing of campus buildings, or room interior if weather is poor. Linear perspective project due at the beginning of next week.
10. Brush and ink drawings using figurative subject matter due at end of class. Slides of artists viewed for cartoon project. Cartoon project begins.
11. Self-initiated project check. Continue cartoon project.
12. Cartoon project due. Critique. Research contemporary and historical artists who have contributed to the development of your outside project for next class discussion. Slides and discussion regarding contemporary and historical approaches to drawing. Students discuss artists who have had an influence in their outside project.
13. Outside project and paper due. Critique. Small sketches in sketchbook. Students draw away from the
classroom at an assigned site.
14. Final drawing project using complex still-life forms and charcoal on Arches Cover paper. Drawing is four class sessions long. Attendance required. All work done in class.
15. Final drawing project completed. Portfolios & sketchbooks due. All work from the semester is due at the
end of the second class period.
16. Final critique, verbal presentation, and pot luck celebration.