The Fundamentals of Drawing

with Sophie Newnham

This course is designed to help those wishing to learn or improve their fundamental drawing skills. Knowing how to purposefully observe and translate what we have seen onto the page is a practice that is an essential starting point to any drawing or painting we create. Over the course we will be taking inspiration from the works of a wide range of accomplished artists and learning new methods to aid personal expression of the world around us whilst developing our own styles.

Beginners to Intermediate

Booking page

Course Dates Spring Term 2025

8, 15, 22, 29 January

5, 12 February

(Half term 19 February)

26 February

5, 12, 19, 26 March

2 April

Course Programme

WEEK 1- The line- shapes, spacing & mark-making continuous line. PICASSO

WEEK 2- Tones and Volume- Blending tones- 5 shades of tone. MORANDI

WEEK 3- Spacing, Subtraction- Negative space and placement of objects WENDY JACOBS

WEEK 4- Measuring and perspective. Adding depth and dimension, VAN GOGH

WEEK 5- Drawing a composition of objects. Foreground vs background, heights and widths

WEEK 6- Bringing our drawings to life. Drawing our hands in different positions 2D/3D ESCHER,

WEEK 7- Reflections vs shadows. Glass of water

WEEK 8- The world around us- Observing and drawing the room (or outside- weather dependent)

WEEK 9- Mirrors and angles, drawing snapshots of ourselves and others.

WEEK 10- Architecture- drawing classical sculpture and architectural details. MICHELANGELO

WEEK 11- Amalgamating skills. Recreating an artwork of your choice. Simplification vs detailing- what to include, what not to include. Where is the focus.

WEEK 12- Amalgamating skills. Fine-tuning and finishing off our drawings.