Studio Arts College International (SACI) is more than an opportunity to study abroad in the birthplace of the Renaissance: it’s an experience you will carry with you, in your career and throughout your life.
Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), SACI offers a wide range of innovative, hands-on graduate and undergraduate programs in traditional and contemporary studio arts, design, conservation, art history, and Italian language and culture.
Surrounded by the great masterpieces of another age and a lively community of contemporary artists, studying at SACI is not only an opportunity to discover what came before you, but to be part of a vibrant culture that is overflowing with artistic life.
Begin a creative journey that will prepare you to succeed in the competitive art world. Many partial scholarships are available for undergraduate and graduate study at SACI. We offer an easy online application process that you can use to submit and check on the status of your application.ARTS313 Intermediate Drawing - Section B, John Taylor, Spring 2020
The object of this course is to acquire new experience and stimulus using Renaissance Florence as our touchstone. The interactions of line and cross contour will be investigated using the haptic sensibility of surface description and sense of touch. Proportion and light and shadow will also be investigated using the optical system of perspective. Ultimately, we will be working towards a comprehension of descriptive line and tactile surface, as against the fall of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), combined with the poetical use of spatial depth. Understanding that there are different systems of rendering form in space to discover relationships between the nude, landscape and cityscape, and on our journey develop and investigate our own artistic identity.
The first few weeks of the semester will be a review of basic drawing techniques, to draw what we see and not what we believe that we should see, looking at objects and surfaces directly in front of us without any preconceived notions of what a drawing should look like. Sketching or drawing is a simple and direct way to visualize ideas, projects, dreams, and to organize them on a two-dimensional surface.
Students please note that the results of all the Renaissance research drawings can be seen in the paintings, sculptures and architecture in and around the city of Florence.
Research and experiment is as important, if not more so, than the finished product.
Finished products can only develop from many hours of practice and research.
Classes will be held mainly indoors with life drawing. Some classes occasionally will be held outdoors.
Various media will be explored. Wet and dry techniques. The use of any kind of graphic method will also be encouraged.
Course Assignments
Classes will allow us to cover many aspects of drawing. During the first few weeks we will concentrate on reviewing beginning exercises: contour, gesture drawings, anatomy, and proportions. We will then move on to consolidate a personal approach in life drawing with the help of any media, including watercolors and ink. Classes will usually start with quick warm-up drawings.
The second part of the term is dedicated to the finished double drawing sessions. Students are requested to attend Open Drawing sessions on Wednesday 8 to 10 pm, for both homework assignments and personal research.
Requirements
A portfolio/folder is required, illustrating your progress and work at the time of the last review. This will include both drawings executed in class and homework. Homework will be normally done on letter-size paper. You should keep a personal sketchbook with individual projects.
Attendance
Refer to SACI handbook.
Attendance is required, absences will affect your grade: two unexcused absences result in a lowering of the grade by 1/3 of a letter; two late arrivals to class are considered the equivalent of one unexcused absence (arriving often late to class is one of the best ways to penalize your final grade).
Responsibilities
1) Your grade will be affected by two unexplained absences.
2) Be on time for class: the assignment will often be explained at the beginning.
3) If you know that you will be absent on a given date you should notify the instructor ahead of time.
Final Meetings
The last week of class students will meet individually with the instructor for a portfolio evaluation of all work done in class, sketchbooks, homework and any extra work.
Evaluation & Grading
Evaluation is determined by your commitment to quality, completion of course assignments, in-class activities, fieldwork assignments and your sketchbook.
Graduate Students
Students in MFA, MA, and Post-Bac programs are expected to complete additional assignments and to produce work at a level appropriate for students in a graduate program. They are graded accordingly and, if they successfully complete all course requirements for graduate students, receive graduate-level credit for the course.
Materials List
- Large portfolio to store your drawings
- Sketchbooks 11x16 inches large format (A3) and small pocket format 6x8 inches (A5)
- Paper: newsprint and good quality paper
- Tracing paper, 10 sheets of 50x70 cm
- Graphite pencils: 8B to 2B (lapis)
- Graphite stick (grafite)
- Willow charcoal
- Black and white chalk
- Packet of good colored chalk pastels
- Large fresco brush (at least 4 cm in length = 2 inches) only obtainable from Zecchi
- Water colors only in tubes: yellow, burnt sienna, black and white
- Black ink and cheap bamboo pen, white ink optional
- Soft kneadable erasers only
- Fixative spray, pencil sharpener, clips, masking tape
Note: All materials above can be bought at the Zecchi art shore with a student discount.
European Paper Dimensions
|
Centimeters |
Inches |
|
|
A0 |
84 x 120 |
33 x 47 |
|
A1 |
60 x 84 |
23 x 33 |
|
A2 |
42 x 60 |
16,5 x 23 |
|
A3 |
30 x 42 |
11,5 x 16,5 |
|
A4 |
21 x 30 |
8,3 x 11,7 |
|
A5 |
15 x 21 |
5,8 x 8,3 |
|
B0 |
100 x 140 |
39,37 x 55,67 |
|
B1 |
70 x 100 |
27,83 x 39,37 |
|
B2 |
50 x 70 |
19,69 x 27,83 |
|
B3 |
35 x 50 |
13,90 x 19,69 |
|
B4 |
25 x 35 |
9,84 x 13,90 |
|
B5 |
17.5 x 25 |
6,93 x 9,84 |
General Safety & Emergency Instructions
Click here for a pdf of SACI's General Safety and Emergency instructions.
Additional Studio & Safety Rules
On Studio Use
The life drawing class will have nude models posing for students, and, as such, there are certain rules of conduct to be obeyed.
1. When the model is posing all doors and curtains should be kept closed.
2. Students should only be drawing while the model is posing, when the model is dressed then we can chat and relax.
3. It is essential to always leave the life room clean and tidy for the next class.
It is essential that care and attention is taken in regards to studio practice. This will be addressed the first week of classes. But beyond rules and safety and health issues, it is necessary to point out the importance of maintaining a certain order in the studio for the sake of all the students in the classes that utilize the space. At the end of class put your materials away and drawings and boards off the easels and into the storage shelves.
Air-Exchange System
When working in the ground floor studios an air-exchange system can be utilized for maintaining proper ventilation and extraction of undesirable fumes and odors. The control panel is located on the wall opposite of the stairway between the printmaking and painting studios.
There are also skylight panels, which can be opened and closed using switches located in the small sky-lit studio off of the main painting studio, another on the wall next to the stairs going into the basement storage area, and also in the studio with skylights off of the main lecture hall. Do not spray fixative on your drawings in the studios. Go out into the garden, or under an air-extraction hood in the printmaking studio.
Disposal of Materials
There are not as many toxic materials in drawing as there are in painting, but with some experimental drawing approaches there may be the necessity of properly disposing of these types of materials. Do not ever throw used solvents, thick washes, acrylic mediums, etc. down the sink. There is a special barrel for this located just to the right of the sink in the painting studio. The same goes for saturated rags or paper towels. There is a special disposal barrel in the printmaking studio next to the plate cleaning tank.
Storage Area
Drawing paper and portfolios can be stored on the flat shelves in the storage area located near the sink in the painting studio and between the drawing and painting studios. Lockers can be claimed for use by putting your name, term, and class on a piece of tape onto the locker door. They are located downstairs and just off the Clayton Hubbs Lecture Hall.
Schedule
STUDENTS SHOULD PRINT OUT A COPY OF THIS SYLLABUS AND BRING IT WITH THEM TO CLASS ON THE FIRST DAY, ALONG WITH PORTFOLIOS OR CDs
*Denotes that a life model will be posing in class.
The instructor reserves the right to change the program whenever necessary.
The Intermediate drawing sessions will be a return to the basic life drawing sessions for the first half of the semester, using all materials and methods of mark making, interspersed with some on-site field trip drawings to break the routine.
During the second half of the semester, we will aim for one individually finished drawing per session. The life model will be available throughout the semester for those students who wish to work in the life room. For those students wishing to work on individual personal projects, first they must submit relevant proposals, and report to class at the beginning of each session and show the finished work done at the end of each class session.
First thing every Tuesday and Thursday there will be sketchbook and homework review in class with emphasis on the study of perspective and the use of foreground, middle ground and background.
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Week 1 |
Tuesday, January 14 Slideshow. Introduction to Gesture (The gesture - the armature of the drawing) Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, January 16 Homework in small sketchbooks: 5 gesture and 5 contour drawing to be repeated every week until Midterm Break, and only daily composition each day on the way to or from class. |
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Week 2 |
Tuesday, January 21 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, January 23 Homework in small sketchbooks : 5 gestures and 5 contours using the pencil to find correct proportions. |
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Week 3 |
Tuesday, January 28 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, January 30 Small sketchbooks : 1 sustained study using the tracing paper and pencil to find correct proportion. |
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Week 4 |
Tuesday, February 4 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, February 6 Homework in small sketchbooks: Hand and feet anatomy from yourselves or from friends. |
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Week 5 |
Tuesday, February 11 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, February 13 Homework in small sketchbooks: Two landscape studies in black and white using fingers and/or brush. |
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Week 6 |
Tuesday, February 18 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, February 20 Homework in small sketchbooks ; architectural and landscape studies using the rules of perspective, spatial depth, foreshortening, background, middle ground, foreground.1 study of landscape in tonal value, using colored chalk. |
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Week 7 |
Tuesday, February 25 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, February 27 Homework for Midterm Break |
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Week 8 |
MIDTERM BREAK (February 29 – March 8) |
|
Week 9 |
In this five-week period the life model poses will be of your own choice, and each week there will be a double figure pose using the same two models for both Tuesday and Thursday classes, enabling us to see the relationships in a two figure composition with background enabling us to make longer, more concentrated, and larger studies. Tuesday, March 10 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, March 12 Homework in small sketchbooks ; architectural and landscape studies using the rules of perspective, spatial depth, foreshortening, background, middle ground, foreground. |
|
Week 10 |
Tuesday, March 17 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, March 19 Homework in small sketchbook : 2 studies of cityscape in perspective, one vanishing point and two vanishing points. |
|
Week 11 |
Tuesday, March 24 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, March 26 Homework in small sketchbook : 2 studies of hairstyles of friends. |
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Week 12 |
Tuesday, March 31 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, April 2 Homework in small sketchbook : Several studies of friend’s heads. |
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Week 13 |
Tuesday, April 7 Compulsory Open Drawing every Wednesday 8 -10pm the subject to be decided in class every Tuesday afternoon. Thursday, April 9 Homework in small sketchbooks , looking at portraits and particularly hair styles. |
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Week 14 |
Tuesday, April 14 Thursday, April 16 |
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Week 15 |
Tuesday, April 21 Thursday, April 23 |
RECOMMENDED READING
In compliance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act Textbook Provision, SACI provides, when possible, the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and retail price of required and recommended reading. Note: All three books are available for loan or can be consulted in the SACI Worthington Library.
Kimon Nicolaides,The Natural Way to Draw , Mariner Books, 1990.
ISBN: 9780395530078 (Retail price: $16.95)
Daniel M. Mendelowitz, Drawing, Stanford University Press, 1980.
ISBN: 9780030561306 (Retail price: To Be Determined)
David Hockney, Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters , Studio Expanded Edition, 2006.
ISBN: 9780142005125 (Retail price: To Be Determined)