Drawing the Urban Environment

Develop skills, techniques and insights while drawing the three-dimensional world of the urban environment. Deborah Marks will guide you through the fundamental drawing concepts that enable a responsive approach to the drawn environment: line, scale, perspective, volume in space, positive/negative spatial relationships, value and composition.

In this course, you will learn to build the structural framework as well as exploring the expressive possibilities of drawing this subject. Deborah will encourage you to experiment with a variety of drawing mediums from pencil to charcoal to ink and wash. You will learn to translate small sketches into larger scale compositional arrangements and discover the atmospheric possibilities of the subject.

We will investigate the outdoor environment within the grounds of the National Art School as well as having a field day in the urban environment. This course is suitable for beginners or those with some prior drawing experience.

* NAS Short Courses are open to students of ages 16 years and over. The NAS Art Club is open to students from ages 15 years and over.

* Drawing and painting short courses may be held in upstairs studios. If access to stairs is not suitable, please contact Short Courses team at short.courses@nas.edu.au 

* What to bring? Please refer to the list of required materials in the Art Materials field below.

Deborah Marks’ art practice includes painting, drawing, photography and collage. Deborah is inspired by her interest in psychological aspects of the human condition. Her figurative artworks reside between representation and abstraction as an exploration of the ambiguity between surface and illusion. Deborah has been a finalist in the Kedumba Art Award, the Portia Geach Memorial Award, the Mosman Art Prize, the Blake Prize and the Korean/Australian Arts Foundation Prize and was awarded the 2014 Kedumba Art Award. She has exhibited with Defiance Gallery, Charles Hewitt Gallery, Stanley Street Gallery and Kunstverein Murnau, Germany, and most recently exhibited with Wagner Contemporary, Sydney. In 2007 she was awarded the National Art School Onslow Storrier Studio Residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. Deborah holds a Master of Fine Arts degree and lectures in the National Art School Drawing Department. Her artwork is represented in both public and private collections.

Students must supply their own art materials, please refer to the list below.

Papers:

• 1 Pad Smooth Watercolour Paper: A4 (21 x 297mm) 150gms (eg. Arches Watercolour paper - 15 sheet pad)
• 1 Visual Art Diary: A4 110gsm Cartridge Paper
• 1 sheet Montval Watercolour Paper: (or similar) 300gms, 75cm x 55cm approx.
• 1 sheet Craft Paper, thickness of card

Drawing materials:

• Compressed charcoal: round type (x1) eg. Omega brand
• Charcoal Pencil: (x2) black/ 4B soft and medium eg. General’s brand
• Graphite Pencil: 4B (x1)
• Sanguine charcoal Pencil: (x1) eg. General’s brand
• White charcoal Pencil (x1) eg. General’s brand
  

Ink: Black eg. Art Spectrum 250ml
Mark Making Tools: Anything that will give you an interesting mark: eg. Sticks, Balsa wood
Brushes: Bristle: A range of brushes: eg. ‘Neef’ brand, Flat top, Size 5, 7, 10
Erasers: Hard White Eraser eg. Staedtler brand

Other miscellaneous materials:

• Palette: eg. with recesses
• Sponges
• Paper Towel or rags
• Water Jar
  Double sided tape
• Scissors
• Bulldog Clips (x2)
• Spray Fixative
• Masking Tape
• Stanley Knife or sharpening blade
• Apron

Other supplies:
Bring whatever you need to make yourself comfortable outdoors e.g. Hat, Suntan lotion, Stool or rug: eg Pack Stool, food and drinks

Enclosed footwear is essential in all studios on campus.