Looking, Drawing and Composting with Hector Acuna

Description

When composing or designing a visual image, we are arranging its parts to create the whole. Composition either enhances or inhibits the way we understand an image. Learning how to create dynamic, attractive, and intentional compositions starts with how we look at our subjects. This workshop will focus on the subtleties of looking at and simplifying our subjects into abstract drawing elements such as line and shape. Students will encounter drawing methods to create form and space through a series of exercises. Whether you’re new to making art or you’re a seasoned artist looking to improve your skills, this course will introduce simple and engaging solutions to the challenges of drawing a dynamic representational image. After a series of presentations and demos, you will apply the information by drawing from direct observation using graphite and charcoal. We will look at artwork from past artists who have pioneered methods of successful composition to aid our understanding of the process. The information and drawing methods taught will strengthen your approach to composition in future two-dimensional art projects: drawing, painting, printmaking, quilting, etc. Materials will be provided, but if you have a large sketchbook, please bring it.

The instructor for this workshop is an award-winning artist and professor currently based in Cedarburg, WI. He has structured this workshop with methods so each student will experience a process-based practice. His curriculum builds on drawing courses he’s taught at the university level to students with varying drawing experience. Most of his work begins with pencil and paper. As a studio artist and competitive plein air painter, he attributes the skills he’s learned through observational drawing to his greatest successes. The ability to take inspiration from subjects observed with the naked eye provides endless possibilities to create new and surprising works of art regardless of the chosen medium.