Visual Arts

How to hold and use the pencil (the overhand and tripod grips; drawing from the shoulder and elbow, not the fingers); the graphite grades (the H–HB–B scale) and paper tooth, and choosing the right tool for each job; representing texture by matching mark to material; freehand plotting, layout and proportion; and sighting — using the pencil at arm's length to measure units, check angles and align, to get the relationships right.

Freehand sketching for visual proportion; the pencil value scale; the six shading techniques — hatching, cross-hatching, contour hatching, stippling, scribble/scumbling and smudging — as distinct controllable tools; pen and ink (positive/negative space, line weight, building tone from line density); colour mediums (coloured pencil, watercolour, marker) and their logic; and Betty Edwards's seeing method — drawing edges, spaces, relationships and values rather than symbols.

Freehand, observed perspective (by eye, not ruled construction — which lives in the technical drawing course): the horizon line and eye level, the vanishing point, the picture plane and the cone of vision; one-, two- and three-point perspective and when each applies; foreshortening; how to sketch interior and exterior spaces in perspective; and the common errors to avoid.

The still life — arranging a combination of objects (overlap, focal point, one dominant light), then rendering the full light logic (highlight, mid-tone, core shadow, reflected light, cast shadow) with colour pencils and texture; the self-portrait — head proportions and the Loomis construction (as a loose guide sighting overrides), structure before likeness, exploring a medium and some abstraction; and a case study of a famous artist's drawing technique.

Live exposure — watching a practising artist draw and narrate their decisions, and what a live demonstration transmits that a book cannot (sequence, pace, pressure, recovery from error); sketching from life, where subjects move and force gesture and editing; and building a personal drawing practice — the daily, low-stakes sketchbook habit that turns everything in the course into skill.