Oil painting is one of the richest, most powerfully expressive mediums that exist. It offers a vast diversity of approaches and provides the most flexibility of all the painting materials. To take advantage of that variety, certain technical knowledge is essential. This class is geared as a thorough introduction to the newer oil painter. Our early class focus will be on understanding materials through a variety of life study exercises. Focus on color and composition will promote effectively orchestrated images. Our ultimate goal will be to make powerful images that marry appropriate approaches to oil painting with personal vision. The class emphasis will balance the technical mastery of materials with the clarity of effective visual communication.

Elective

Magazines, newspapers and other publications rely heavily on pictures to illuminate messages initiated by writers, and unlike any other genre of illustration, the editorial field gives voice to the artist. In this alternately reactive and expressive line of work, the illustrator engages in a powerful partnership with the written word, effectively becoming an author of opinions and ideas. This class will approach several editorial assignments, all of which involve an illustrated response to written text.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

What is it like to make a living creating imagery for the numerous printed outlets of American culture in contemporary times? This course will emphasize problem-solving in a commercial situation while steadfastly holding on to your personal integrity. In addition to responding to editorial-based assignments, the student will be exposed, through slide lectures to the work of artists and illustrators who are burning a path right through the past and into the future of illustration.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

Illustration is an art of visual communication. Style is simply the illustrator's vocabulary. Substance is what the illustrator has chosen to express. The success of an illustration depends on the seamless connection of these two entities. In this course students encounter a wide variety of subject matter drawn from a variety of fields. They are asked to create illustrations with a particular emphasis on the development of a personal vision as well as the successful communication of wisely chosen ideas. Style, its strengths and limitations, is examined in the light of its importance in the marketplace.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

Illustration is an art of visual communication. Style is simply the illustrator's vocabulary. Substance is what the illustrator has chosen to express. The success of an illustration depends on the seamless connection of these two entities. In this course students encounter a wide variety of subject matter drawn from a variety of fields. They are asked to create illustrations with a particular emphasis on the development of a personal vision as well as the successful communication of wisely chosen ideas. Style, its strengths and limitations, is examined in the light of its importance in the marketplace.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

The New Yorker is among the most respected periodicals in America, and it is one of the few publications that features an illustrated cover for every issue. This is an introduction to editorial illustration, as seen through the lens of this magazine. The content of this publication spans a wide spectrum, including investigative reporting, humorous pieces, and short fiction. Articulate and influential, these dense articles are offset by imagery that is just as thought provoking. Students will be challenged to develop a body of work consisting of covers, spots, and full/half page illustrations related to topics of cultural interest, literature, science, the seasons, and current events. This course is for those with a keen interest in translating the written word into visible form with wit and style.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

In this course, we examine gender -- not your biologically assigned equipment, but those social constructs that shape and define what is male, what is female and what is that less absolute space between and beyond. Weekly assignments often begin by reviewing the traditional role of women and men in American culture but through a contemporary lens, examining the astoundingly colorful range of gender and sex identities that cannot be limited to simply pink and blue. We'll turn stereotypes inside out, flip popular icons upside down, and rework familiar images from hallowed museums. We'll search for fresh depictions of abstract concepts like conception, contraception, relationships, power, etc. This course offers equal opportunity for XX's, XY's and those outside the binary.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

When we read, retell, or illustrate, a story, we reveal something about ourselves. What motivates an artist to explore one particular theme over another? Whether it is a political issue, a personal obsession, or of purely aesthetic interest, this course will require students to find personal meaning in the narrative sources they select for class projects. Assignments will include the creation of a visual development project that culminates in a singular narrative illustration, as well as a series of sequential images for a text, and a final project that may be formatted as book, comic, toy, game or other translation of visual narrative. Discussions will include the integration of text and image, POV, composition for storytelling, character turn-arounds, media usage, and style concerns in the service of communicating the essential meaning of a story.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

When a group of people is together for long enough, meaningful stories emerge. Often, these stories are passed down through generations by word of mouth and pictures. This kind of story goes by many names: folktale, myth, legend, fable. What can we learn from the ways stories are retold? Why do certain stories, archetypes and themes persist across time and cultures? How can studying these iconic narratives, characters and events help shape our visual storytelling practices? This course will explore a range of methods and approaches to illustrating traditional and contemporary fables, myths, legends and folklore, examining how meaning is created through the illustrator’s visual choices. Students will have the opportunity to bring their own stories and perspectives to their projects and to experiment with the materials they prefer. We will look at various illustrated precedents in each class to widen our understanding of storytelling in both a historical and present-day context.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Animals have enjoyed a prominent place in art for as long as humans have been creating it, beginning with the caves in Lascaux. Along the way they have figured prominently in myths fables and allegories, fulfilling symbolic roles in a wealth of picture books, and appeared as frequent players in visual metaphors employed by editorial illustrators. This course will provide opportunities for students to work within a variety of illustration genres, finding their own approach to working with representations of animal life. There will be in-depth exploration of creature anthropomorphism and its uses- from social and political satire to its capabilities in a wide range of storytelling methods. From JJ Granville to Spiegelman's Maus, to children's book greats like Richard Scarry and Arthur Geisert, the human-animal/animal-human is an enduring motif that will continue to be reinvented and expanded upon. Students will have the ability to channel projects and assignments towards formats of their choosing - including painting and other gallery-based practices, children's publishing, artist books, comics and zines.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

A visual essay is a personal statement which uses multiple visuals to explore, explain, and/or express a particular topic, with an emphasis on research and the artist’s own authorship and interpretations.

During the first half of the semester, students will engage in brainstorming exercises and critique discussions in order to develop research strategies, instill a preliminary sketching regimen, and practice presentation skills.

During the second half of the semester, students will choose a topic to focus on, culminating in a final personal essay. Students will present a body of comprehensive work that must be a publicly accessible format such as a book, a gallery of original works, or displayed via a digital platform. Emphasis will be placed on personal authorship, investigation, and interpretation.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

The class aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the art of mural painting. The course will explore the historical significance of murals, examine different mural styles and techniques, and encourag­e students to express their own ideas through the creation of murals. Through a combination of lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on workshops, students will develop the neces­sary skills and knowledge to conceptualize, plan, and execute murals of various scales. The course will culminate in a real world mural installation for the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and School including three walls designed and painted by students. 

Elective

A society's history is written in its stones. From the dystopias of Gotham City or Grand Theft Auto, the hive mind of the Borg and the ecstatic asceticism of the Shakers, to the suburban conformity of Levittown and the Sphinx half buried in sand, every city, every society, is an embodiment of ideas, history, geography, and beliefs. Each built environment has its own logic, both architectural and cultural. With some provocative writings about the phenomenon of the city as inspiration, you will be asked to conceptualize a place and bring it to life visually. The essence of a city - its buildings, pathways, public and private spaces - depends on how you define the character of its people, its government, its history, its geographic siting and even its language. After defining a back-story in broad strokes, you will begin researching the implications of those choices visually. Working from thumbnails and sketches to finished conceptualization, you will explore compelling physical and conceptual viewpoints, with a variety of possibilities in the use of media and technique. Rather than limiting ourselves to purely pragmatic architecture, the class will be searching for imaginative visualizations, where form becomes poetic metaphor suggestive of narrative.

This course fulfills the Illustration Concepts Elective requirement for Illustration Students.

Elective

Students in this course will investigate the specific physical structure of the human body, with the aim of producing drawings of greater structural and visual integrity and more fluid descriptions of movement and weight in the figure. We will proceed through the skeletal and muscular systems at a brisk but reasonable pace, learning names, points of articulation and the dynamic functions of each component of the body. Each weekly assignment will consist of a careful, descriptive drawing of an element of the skeletal or muscular system, and a 'dynamic' drawing in which that same element is shown in action in the living figure. We will also review the work of artists, both contemporary and historical, who have made vital artistic use of the elements of anatomical study. The course includes an optional field trip to the Brown University Evolutionary Biology Lab to draw from cadavers. There will be at least one written test on anatomical facts and terminology. The course culminates in a final project on the theme of 'A Human Ideal', exploring past concepts of idealized form in the figure in relation to anatomical reality and contemporary cultural perspectives.

Elective

Students in this course will investigate the specific physical structure of the human body, with the aim of producing drawings of greater structural and visual integrity and more fluid descriptions of movement and weight in the figure. We will proceed through the skeletal and muscular systems at a brisk but reasonable pace, learning names, points of articulation and the dynamic functions of each component of the body. Each weekly assignment will consist of a careful, descriptive drawing of an element of the skeletal or muscular system, and a 'dynamic' drawing in which that same element is shown in action in the living figure. We will also review the work of artists, both contemporary and historical, who have made vital artistic use of the elements of anatomical study. The course includes an optional field trip to the Brown University Evolutionary Biology Lab to draw from cadavers. There will be at least one written test on anatomical facts and terminology. The course culminates in a final project on the theme of 'A Human Ideal', exploring past concepts of idealized form in the figure in relation to anatomical reality and contemporary cultural perspectives.

Elective

This course will build on the skills established in Sophomore Painting, while broadening the students' understanding of options available to the painter. The primary work of the semester will be on individually directed projects, worked on both in and out of class. Overall, a goal of establishing a personal visual vocabulary of facture and image will be emphasized. Students will be encouraged to particularize their use of the painting medium and their approach to subject and statement through color, painterly touch, format, use of materials, drawing and compositional decisions, stylistic reference and implied narrative. The core medium of the class will be oil paint, but this may be augmented or extended by other media. The course will include group exercises designed to solidify a basic understanding of drawing, the use of the medium and the principles of color. Periodic outside assignments will extend this practice while emphasizing personal choice and expressive adjustment based on individual priorities. A flexible format for in-class work on personal projects will allow group interaction to coexist with individually directed work. The semester's goal for each student will be to define a direction for future work in painting.

Elective

Throughout history, the natural environment has been a subject of charm and awe for the artist, from the delicately painted frescoes in ancient Roman homes to the 16th century, when the landscape transcended the role of 'background', and gained momentum as a sublime subject in its own right. This is a course on the history of techniques, concepts, possibilities, and purposes in landscape painting. The class will encourage exploration of landscape as sublime subject, as metaphor for human experience or as the battleground for politically charged debate of environmental issues, among other possible approaches. Students will work on location and in studio, learning approaches to plein air painting as well as incorporation of references in the construction of natural environments.

Elective

From the disturbingly exotic pictures of the Underworld by Hieronymus Bosch and the twisted visual puzzles of M.C. Escher, to the mid-20th Century comic characters of Stan Lee and classic 1950's science fiction films, fantasy images provide a rich source of inspiration for the contemporary artist/illustrator. In this course, we will study the art of Surrealist artists such as Magritte and Max Ernst, the unique fruit and vegetable portraits of Archimboldo, investigate the abstract dream imagery of Hilma Af Klint and Carl Jung, and the seminal graphic novels of Sue Coe (Porkopolis) and Art Spiegelman (Maus). We will interpret text and film as we create our own fantasy paintings working with appropriated imagery, collage, and painting mediums such as oil, acrylic, gouache and watercolor.

Elective

Portraiture is an interpretation of human presence: identity made visible through the decisions of the artist. More than a record of physical likeness, the portrait can communicate psychological experience, cultural identity, social power, and the conditions surrounding a life. Through observation, historical inquiry, and material exploration, students will develop an understanding of how structure, color, light, composition, gesture, environment, and paint handling shape the meaning of a represented person. Painting will remain the course’s primary language, with opportunities to incorporate collage, mixed media, digital processes, and other materials when they extend the work’s conceptual purpose.

Coursework will investigate four questions: How do people construct and present their identities? How can painting suggest an interior condition? Who controls how someone is seen? What can the portrait of one person reveal about a larger world? Students will select subjects through self-observation, direct encounters, collaboration, or mediated and archival sources. Interviews, repeated sittings, photography, environmental observation, and contextual research will help students consider not only who their subject is, but how they know what they believe about that person—and what remains unknowable. Through iterative studies and sustained projects, students will move between likeness and interpretation, tradition and experimentation, and the individual and the culture that surrounds them.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0.00 - $150.00

Elective

Many artists have used metaphor as a way to process complex information and emotion in order to reflect on internal and external realities. Each artist draws upon their own unique index of symbols that derive from the personal, the mythic and the universal. An artist must learn to see how their own associations with their symbols circulate within a larger orbit of meaning. This class aims to equip students with a framework of thinking that allows for rigorous self-examination and historical exploration. The most powerful works of art refract light on unseen connections. In this class, students will be encouraged to make connections between their internal and external worlds. Written and image-making assignments will aim to help students navigate their world of symbols. The classwork will consist of individual, partner + group assignments.

Elective