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  • Writer's pictureLaura

College Art Classes

I've been so excited to start my two art classes this semester, Design I and Drawing I. Even though I took art classes all throughout high school and learned a lot, I've never had the experience of in-person classes with classmates drawing beside me and the professor watching as I work.


In Design I we are going over the elements of art (line, shape, value, texture, and color) and the principles of art (harmony, variety, dominance, proportions, economy, balance, movement). The first project we worked on dealt with harmony - things being the same, which gives a sense of familiarity. We came up with a motif and repeated it several times over a section with the goal of achieving sameness across the pattern. We sketched out several motif ideas and layouts on paper, but we cut out black and gray paper for the finished project. I cut out a total of around 350 pieces of paper!


Our next project is similar, but the opposite - variety! We'll work with several different shapes we create to make something where virtually nothing is the same. A good amount of variety, or difference, in a design creates visual interest. The unknown, or things we can't predict, interest us, but too much variety can create an overload of information without a clear focal point or place for our eyes to rest. These two projects we've been working on focus on the extremes, and later we'll learn how to balance harmony and variety together to create a unified piece.


Meanwhile, in Drawing I we've been starting with the basics of measuring and proportions. We've had some material demonstrations as well, such as sharpening pencils with an X-Acto knife to have more control over the length and shape of the lead. We've had several objects set up on a table in the middle of the room for us to draw, and we've learned a technique to measure proportions by holding a stick out in front of us and noting how long or wide the object is. We've also talked about seeing the shapes within objects to get a better idea of their forms. We've done several in-class sketches, and our first out of class project was using what we've learned to measure an object accurately and note the shapes in it.



Our ongoing project for this class is keeping a sketchbook. By the end of the semester, we'll have 60 sketches of various objects in our sketchbook. These are the ones I've done so far!


I've been enjoying these classes so far, and I can't wait to see what else I'll learn over the semester! Keep an eye out for more class projects!



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