Overview

You will learn the most important aspects of drawing from the very beginning. You will build the foundation for rendering basic objects and environments, and become ready to practice these techniques with more complex subjects in future drawings. All the techniques of the Essential Drawing Course are done in monochrome (black and white) so you can keep your focus on structure, tonality, shading, form, and texture.

This drawing course includes 12 online classes, and one free bonus Figure Drawing session on Saturdays. The Essential Drawing classes take place in real-time via Zoom. You can join the course at any time – each class is an independent technique.

Benefits:‍

Receive photo references for each technique
Watch the instructor’s demo
FREE bonus class to a Figure Drawing session on Saturdays
See what other students are creating in class
Ask questions & receive instructor critiques in real-time
Access to recordings for life

In 12 weeks you will learn all the basics of drawing: how to express the light, the form, the space, and how to bring any object to life on paper. The topics include landscape, interior, still life, floral bouquet, face, and other subjects. Materials you will be drawing with are pencil, charcoal, pen/ink, conte, and oil pastel. You can enter this course at any time, as each class is a stand-alone lesson. Home assignments are provided after each class so that you could practice the skill you learned in class, on your own, and strengthen it through this additional practice.

PLUS receive recordings of every class in the course. This will allow you to pause, rewatch, rewind, and replay any part of the course, for life.

Course Schedule:

Shading: Learn 12 shading styles inspired by techniques of the masters throughout history and find your style.
Shape: Learn to draw a floral bouquet with the Right-brain method called the Negative Shape Technique.
Volume: Learn to express 3-D and your point of view by using the power of line.
Tone: Render a realistic still life by creating smooth tonal transitions between light and shadow.
Composition: Learn the key principles of drawing and discover 15 ways to compose any subject.
Perspective: Learn to construct an interior in accurate one-point perspective.
Line: Learn from the Great Masters and practice 2 ways of correcting mistakes without an eraser or starting over.
Proportions: Learn a technique to achieve realistic portraiture without detailed lessons in anatomy.
Texture: Learn to express texture in a landscape and create near and distant planes through aerial perspective.
Right-Brain: Draw a Parisian interior upside down to practice drawing shapes instead of things.
Sketching: Learn to draw in quick hand.
Tonal Relationships: Learn the concept of Pushing-and-Pulling, which is used to achieve depth, realism, and elegance in a drawing.

Become an artist you've always dreamed of!

Supply List

Must have:

9x12in drawing pad (or any size you’d like)
4B pencils
Eraser
Sharpener
White glue or glue stick
Scissors
18-inch ruler is preferred, but a 12-inch ruler is also fine

Optional but recommended:

Set of conté sticks
Set of willow charcoal sticks
Blending stumps OR paper towels OR q-tips
Brush marker (water resistant)
Workable fixative spray (must have for charcoal, conte crayon, or soft pastels (not for oil pastels.)
Black Blick Premium tempera paint (this tempera brand is the only tempera brand we recommend. All other brands are not worth purchasing.)
‍Small airtight cup to keep diluted tempera in OR any small container works
‍Calligraphy paint brush OR any bristle paint brush
Regular printer paper OR sketch paper
‍Colored paper, OR post-it notes, OR even a brown paper bag