Foundations of Observational and Expressive Drawing

Do you want to learn to draw in a way that’s responsive to the unique qualities of your subject? And to the expressive effect of your drawing’s abstract elements?

This course introduces beginners to the crucial but often overlooked fundamentals of drawing. You'll learn to see and record your subject in a unified way through attention to proportion, alignment, structure, perspective, and light and shade, while at the same time increasing your awareness of the expressive effects of your drawing’s abstract elements. You'll draw in pencil, chalks and ink from subjects including plaster casts, still life objects, the historic National Art School campus and the life model, and also study artists’ drawings from many eras that are outstanding for their responsive and expressive qualities.

Course Schedule
The following is an indicative course schedule only. The content and pace of the sessions may vary in response to the students in the program.
Week 1: Cast drawing 1 – Learn to see and draw your subject in a more integrated way, using the traditional approach of drawing from plaster casts.
Week 2: Cast drawing 2 - Continue drawing from plaster casts, now with a focus on portrait casts, with instruction on the anatomical structure of the head.
Week 3: Perspective - Explore the rationale and basic principles of perspective and apply these principles to drawing objects in the studio and buildings on the NAS campus.
Week 4: Form and shading - Explore varied shading techniques and contrast their expressive effects by copying from master drawings and drawing outside on the NAS campus.
Week 5-6: Life drawing - An introduction to drawing the life model, focussing on grasping the action as a whole and explaining that action as an arrangement of 3D anatomical masses.
Week 7: Exploring media 1 - Explore drawing techniques using black and white chalk on toned paper by copying from master drawings and drawing outside on the NAS campus.
Week 8: Exploring media 2 - Explore drawing techniques using pen and ink by copying from master drawings and drawing outside on the NAS campus.

Please note: There will be no class 27 March due to the Easter Long Weekend

* NAS Short Courses are open to students of ages 16 years and over. The NAS Art Club is open to students between 15 - 17 years of age.

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

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

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

Materials required for the first class:

• A4 sketchbook
• Progresso (solid woodless graphite) pencils – 2B, 4B
• Pencil sharpener or Stanley knife
• Pencil eraser

Additional materials (to be discussed in first class):

• Cartridge paper A2/A3 size – loose sheets or pad
• 2 bulldog clips
• Black and white conte crayons
• Grey/brown toned paper
• Selection of fine point pigment ink pens
• Small (A5 or similar) sketchbook with smooth paper

Enclosed footwear is essential in all studios on campus.

Dr David Briggs is a classically trained artist, art educator and researcher who studied at the Julian Ashton Art School, Sydney. He taught life drawing, artistic anatomy, painting and colour courses at Ashton's for 25 years and for National Art School Short Courses continuously since 2011, and he has also taught life drawing programs for trainee animators at Disney's Sydney studio from 2000 to 2006 and for the Animation course at UTS from 2018 to the present.