Intermediate Drawing Skills
with Nataliya Zozulya
Course Dates Spring Term 2025
6, 13, 20, 27 January
3, 10 February
(Half Term 17 February)
24 February
3, 10, 17, 24, 31 March
Drawing is the simplest and oldest art form. Whatever the tools, whether pencil, charcoal, ink or pastel, all drawings are executed either in line or tone, or both. Line drawings made purely in lines, whereas tone involves shading and degrees of light and dark.
Drawing is an activity that can be carried anywhere. It doesn’t need special equipment, like oils or watercolour.
The exercises during the sessions will develop awareness of the space around you and the scale of the objects. Students will continue to work from observation and produce drawings with different materials, exploring measurement, proportions, tone, volume and composition.
Materials required
Good quality A3 white cartridge paper for drawing
hardback sketchbook for sketching and notes
H to 6B pencils
box of thick charcoal sticks
hog brush No. 8
charcoal pencil
paper stumps
soft and hard erasers,
tube of white gouache
masking tape
a can of spray fixative
a metal ruler
small box of soft pastels
Stanley knife
box of baby wipes
apron to protect clothes
Drawing Skills Programme Spring Term 2025
1. Musical instruments. Still life. Pencils, graphite.
How to simplify difficult shapes - Working on tone and proportions.
A3. Establishing the basic structure, sight-size measurements of the composition, tone scale.
2. Drapes in an interior. Direction and movements of the folds. Character and texture of the material for drapes and how to use charcoal or soft pastels to express different textures.
Composition, proportions, point of interest. Soft pastels or charcoal.
3. Vegetables and fruits - still life. Working with ink, pen and brush. Students can bring watercolour. Some colours will be provided by teacher. Bring a good quality paper.
Each shape has light side and dark side, and in addition there is half - tone between light and shadow.
4. Plant drawing with soft pastel using watercolour wash underpainting.
Careful observation of different shapes, general masses and forms. Choice of details to create an interest.
5. Drawing landscape of rural view from reference. Soft pastels, pastel pencils, conte crayons, pen and ink optional. Line of horizon, rhythms and shapes of greenery.
Amazing rules of linear and aerial perspective. John Constable, James Duffield Harding
6.Urban architecture.. Pencils, graphite powder.
Understanding structure of different buildings. Simplification complexity of architectural forms.
7.Still life and natural history. Pencils
Looking at the academic drawing of the great masters.
8. Sketching.
Format, tempo, choice of the subject. Drawing each other. Students’ choice of materials.
9. Plaster cast drawing. Pencils. first session.
Learning how to draw nose, eye, lips.
10. Plaster cast drawing. Pencils. second session
Checking mistakes, working on details, correcting the tone.
11. Drawing of a human head. Model sitting.
Understanding bone structure underneath the muscles.
12 Figure in interior, model sitting or landscape drawing. (students choice of materials.)
The tutor has the right to change the program due to unexpected circumstances.
things to remember:
* even the most complex shapes in nature are based on the 4 simple geometric forms: the cube, the sphere, the cone and the cylinder.
* Light always strikes these object in a logical and consistent way.
* every day drawing even for a short time will make progress quicker.