This program consists of eight courses in the fine arts. Course descriptions are as follows:
- Intro to Fine Arts: What makes a painting work? What inspires a sculptor to create? In this 3-lesson course, you'll develop an understanding of the fine arts by exploring your own artistic creativity. You'll explore paintings, sculptures, and experimental pieces, learning to critique their composition and decode their social or political purpose. The focus is on understanding the elements that make up a visual message and building a vocabulary of fundamental terms and techniques.
- Drawing I: Many people are afraid to draw, but the truth is that drawing is not as hard as it seems. If you can relax, get your mind around the task, and begin to understand what you see, you can draw. In this 6-lesson course, you'll learn how to analyze what you see in the world around you and communicate it on paper. Through hands-on projects, and guided by a professional artist, you will explore the critical concepts of line, mass, form, perspective, value, and composition, building a solid foundation for all your art and design work.
- Digital Photography I: Explore the interaction of photography techniques and environmental factors to create powerful digital images. Students learn the fundamentals of lighting, perspective, and set-up and explore techniques for classic assignments: portraits, product shots, indoor and outdoor location shoots, and fast-action sports. Whether you're a fine artist, graphic designer, or Web developer, a mastery of digital photography gives you creative control of the medium.
- History of Art: Build a foundation in art history and gain a deep understanding of art and the artists who create it. Explore profound themes that have concerned artists for centuries: nature, the human body, society, religion, and politics. Through engaging lectures and projects, you’ll learn how to identify the mediums, materials, and techniques artists use and discuss the styles of important artists, art movements, and historical periods from antiquity through the mid-20th century.
- Figure Drawing:Learn how to make your figure drawings come to life. Following traditional methods, you’ll learn the standard measures and proportions artists use to achieve naturalistic and expressive figure drawings. Illustrations and activities will guide you through the structure of the human skeleton and help you understand how the body’s anatomy shapes its external form. The course builds progressively from the fundamentals to the challenges of portraiture, three-dimensional form, composition, and expression.
- Painting I: Learn a traditional approach to oil painting, the medium of choice for masters such as Van Gogh and Monet. After a thorough orientation to the painter's materials (paint, canvas, brushes, and solvents), you will study a systematic and time-honored approach to oil painting that enables you to capture proportion, perspective, and lighting in the world around you. Each lesson guides you systematically through a disciplined approach to creating art. You'll learn how to build a foundation with preparatory sketches and underpainting, how to mix your paints correctly, and gain control over value through monochromatic painting and color studies.
- Watercolor: Learn traditional watercolor techniques including various washes, glazes, scumbles, resists, and more, and discover how to make the techniques part of your personal painting style. The course begins with a look at the materials and how to make the most of them, and you'll explore watercolor's unique properties by creating a color grid. You’ll examine prominent watercolor artists, how to shape your style and choose intriguing subjects, and how to articulate your ideas into individual paintings and painting series.
- Portrait Painting:Learn how to tackle the challenges of portraiture including utilizing knowledge of anatomy, starting with effective drawings, considering lights and darks, mixing flesh tone paints, and laying on color. You'll explore portraiture throughout history and develop strategies for working with live subjects. You will build your portraiture skills in three challenging projects, guided throughout by a professional portrait artist.
Fine Arts Training
GES 504 -- 200 hours
Course Outline
- Intro to Fine Arts: What makes a painting work? What inspires a sculptor to create? In this 3-lesson course, you'll develop an understanding of the fine arts by exploring your own artistic creativity. You'll explore paintings, sculptures, and experimental pieces, learning to critique their composition and decode their social or political purpose. The focus is on understanding the elements that make up a visual message and building a vocabulary of fundamental terms and techniques.
- Drawing I: Many people are afraid to draw, but the truth is that drawing is not as hard as it seems. If you can relax, get your mind around the task, and begin to understand what you see, you can draw. In this 6-lesson course, you'll learn how to analyze what you see in the world around you and communicate it on paper. Through hands-on projects, and guided by a professional artist, you will explore the critical concepts of line, mass, form, perspective, value, and composition, building a solid foundation for all your art and design work.
- Digital Photography I: Explore the interaction of photography techniques and environmental factors to create powerful digital images. Students learn the fundamentals of lighting, perspective, and set-up and explore techniques for classic assignments: portraits, product shots, indoor and outdoor location shoots, and fast-action sports. Whether you're a fine artist, graphic designer, or Web developer, a mastery of digital photography gives you creative control of the medium.
- History of Art: Build a foundation in art history and gain a deep understanding of art and the artists who create it. Explore profound themes that have concerned artists for centuries: nature, the human body, society, religion, and politics. Through engaging lectures and projects, you’ll learn how to identify the mediums, materials, and techniques artists use and discuss the styles of important artists, art movements, and historical periods from antiquity through the mid-20th century.
- Figure Drawing:Learn how to make your figure drawings come to life. Following traditional methods, you’ll learn the standard measures and proportions artists use to achieve naturalistic and expressive figure drawings. Illustrations and activities will guide you through the structure of the human skeleton and help you understand how the body’s anatomy shapes its external form. The course builds progressively from the fundamentals to the challenges of portraiture, three-dimensional form, composition, and expression.
- Painting I: Learn a traditional approach to oil painting, the medium of choice for masters such as Van Gogh and Monet. After a thorough orientation to the painter's materials (paint, canvas, brushes, and solvents), you will study a systematic and time-honored approach to oil painting that enables you to capture proportion, perspective, and lighting in the world around you. Each lesson guides you systematically through a disciplined approach to creating art. You'll learn how to build a foundation with preparatory sketches and underpainting, how to mix your paints correctly, and gain control over value through monochromatic painting and color studies.
- Watercolor: Learn traditional watercolor techniques including various washes, glazes, scumbles, resists, and more, and discover how to make the techniques part of your personal painting style. The course begins with a look at the materials and how to make the most of them, and you'll explore watercolor's unique properties by creating a color grid. You’ll examine prominent watercolor artists, how to shape your style and choose intriguing subjects, and how to articulate your ideas into individual paintings and painting series.
- Portrait Painting:Learn how to tackle the challenges of portraiture including utilizing knowledge of anatomy, starting with effective drawings, considering lights and darks, mixing flesh tone paints, and laying on color. You'll explore portraiture throughout history and develop strategies for working with live subjects. You will build your portraiture skills in three challenging projects, guided throughout by a professional portrait artist.
This program consists of eight courses in the fine arts. Course descriptions are as follows:
