Drawing Concentration-Sponsored Courses, 2023-2024

Spring 2024 Courses

Draw 1534 Generative Drawing: The Adjacent Possible

(Spring 2024, Deborah Zlotsky, Tuesdays 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm)

The scientific term adjacent possible refers to small evolutionary shifts away from an established position to a new position. Eventually, increments of deviation become stepping stones for the creation of a new species. In the studio context, the adjacent possible affirms the generative power of adjustments, revisions, and redirections, and recognizes the potential of unexpected anomalies.

 The versatility of drawing makes it especially suited for opening up your decision-making to innovate and allowing new concerns to radically or subtly shift your work. In this course, broad biweekly open-ended prompts will help you generate new drawings through a responsive, critical, and experimental process. At the beginning of the semester you’ll define and produce initial works to begin the process. After that starting point, you’ll be challenged to find intersectional depth within your interests as you consider what is relevant and important in each new prompt. When you pivot toward producing the next cycle of drawings, you’ll build your confidence and creative elasticity.

DRAW 1551- Experimental Drawing

(Spring 2024, Blaithin Haddad, Friday 1:10 - 6:10pm)

This course explores the boundaries of traditional approaches in drawing media. This course is designed to ask questions about what drawing is, explore the conventions of drawing, and experiment with unfamiliar/unexpected materials, methods, and presentations in the medium of drawing. This course will also explore the full range of ideas that are currently in use and stretch the known limits of what is considered drawing. Students will engage with visual language and artistic practices ranging from traditional drawing to performance and sculpture. Students develop problem-solving skills by applying them to the fundamental concepts of drawing and compositional organisation. Emphasis is placed on the development of the student’s visual sensitivity, aesthetic judgement and artistic perception.

THAD-H441-01 and 02: History of Drawing 
(Spring 2024, Suzanne Scanlan, Wednesday, 1:10 to 4:10pm or Thursday, 1:10pm to )

As a stimulus to the imagination, method of investigation, or as a basic means of communication, drawing is a fundamental process of human thought. This class will examine various kinds of drawings from the history of art and visual culture moving chronologically from the medieval to the post-modern. Our studies will have a hands-on approach, meeting behind the scenes in the collections of the RISD Museum. Working from objects directly will be supplemented by readings and writing assignments as well as active classroom discussion.

DRAW 1552 - More/Many: A Drawing Series
(Spring 2024, Deborah Zlotsky, Maxime Lefebvre, Wednesday, 6:00 to 9:00pm or Wednesday )

This course creates a structured yet individualized space for developing a series of drawings. Initially, each student will identify important aesthetic, narrative, and conceptual concerns to launch their visual and material-based research. A broader and prolific generative process at the beginning of the semester will lead to more refined and more specific choices. Students will pursue multiple iterations of the concepts and aesthetics that interest them, culminating in a series of cohesive works. Responsive, directed weekly group and individual discussions will be aimed at invigorating the decision-making process and critiquing the work at each stage of development. This course can be taken for credit as a studio elective or as a Drawing Concentration course. As with any studio elective or Drawing Concentration course, your pursuits can connect to your work in your major or serve as an opportunity to create work distinctive from your work in your major. The class is co-taught by two instructors to give you a wider critical context for understanding and responding to the development of your work.

Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 Courses

DRAW: Drawing in Motion
(Fall 2022, Emma Hogarth)

Motion and drawing are inextricable. This course will focus awareness on the intertwined connections between the drawing body, movement and mark. Through experimentation with action, gesture and embodied movement, students will experience and study their own drawing processes through the lens of motion. Methodologies may include: close observation of motion; mindful investigation of movement; process-focused practice and drawing performance. Areas of study will include: motion visualization; algorithmic, aleatory and choreographic approaches to composition. This course will comprise of in-class exercises, slide/video presentations, critiques and short readings. Students will also engage in independent research that will culminate in a final project.

THAD-H441-01: History of Drawing 
(Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Suzanne Scanlan, Schedule TBA)

As a stimulus to the imagination, method of investigation, or as a basic means of communication, drawing is a fundamental process of human thought. This class will examine various kinds of drawings from the history of art and visual culture moving chronologically from the medieval to the post-modern. Our studies will have a hands-on approach, meeting behind the scenes in the collections of the RISD Museum. Working from objects directly will be supplemented by readings and writing assignments as well as active classroom discussion.

Fall 2023 Courses

DRAW-1106 Drawing and Collage

(Fall 2023, Alfredo Gisholt, Fridays 8am to 1pm)

This course will explore drawing and collage using various methods, materials and subjects. Students will use a variety of media, including their own drawings, found objects and photographic images. Students will be encouraged to instigate intuitive and open responses to perceptual and conceptual sources. The form of collage will give students the opportunity to build, develop and reprocess their drawings. Scale, subject, abstraction and materiality are some of the visual elements addressed in the course.
Estimated Materials Cost: $75.00

DRAW-1114: Independent Drawing Project

(Fall 2023, Alfredo Gisholt, James Lambert, Fridays 1:10 to 6:10pm)

The goal of Independent Drawing Projects is for students to develop a distinct, carefully conceived, and self-directed body of works through a process of investigation, critical assessment and production. Through a rigorous studio practice, students are expected to identify and develop their own conceptual interests and material approaches. Individual and group critiques support, facilitate, and intensify this process. While drawing concentrators will be given priority, interested students outside of the concentration and beyond the sophomore level may take this course. For the drawing concentrator, the work created for the Independent Drawing Project serves as the culmination of the Drawing Concentration program.
Open to graduate students by permission of Instructor.

THAD-H441-01: History of Drawing 
(Fall 2023, Suzanne Scanlan, Wednesday, 1:10 to 4:10pm)

As a stimulus to the imagination, method of investigation, or as a basic means of communication, drawing is a fundamental process of human thought. This class will examine various kinds of drawings from the history of art and visual culture moving chronologically from the medieval to the post-modern. Our studies will have a hands-on approach, meeting behind the scenes in the collections of the RISD Museum. Working from objects directly will be supplemented by readings and writing assignments as well as active classroom discussion.

Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 Courses

DRAW: Drawing in Motion
(Fall 2022, Emma Hogarth)

Motion and drawing are inextricable. This course will focus awareness on the intertwined connections between the drawing body, movement and mark. Through experimentation with action, gesture and embodied movement, students will experience and study their own drawing processes through the lens of motion. Methodologies may include: close observation of motion; mindful investigation of movement; process-focused practice and drawing performance. Areas of study will include: motion visualization; algorithmic, aleatory and choreographic approaches to composition. This course will comprise of in-class exercises, slide/video presentations, critiques and short readings. Students will also engage in independent research that will culminate in a final project.

THAD-H441-01: History of Drawing 
(Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Suzanne Scanlan, Schedule TBA)

As a stimulus to the imagination, method of investigation, or as a basic means of communication, drawing is a fundamental process of human thought. This class will examine various kinds of drawings from the history of art and visual culture moving chronologically from the medieval to the post-modern. Our studies will have a hands-on approach, meeting behind the scenes in the collections of the RISD Museum. Working from objects directly will be supplemented by readings and writing assignments as well as active classroom discussion.

SCULP-2176-01: Operational Drawing
(Fall 2022, Schedule TBA, Dean Snyder. 3 spots available for Drawing Concentrators)

What is Operational Drawing? This considers the question by making works that address how we image the body in time and space with tools and media. Akin to dance, drawing just might be the next human activity that engages a spontaneous simultaneous interplay of thought, action and acting upon. In this studio we will be working together and individually to explore how drawing relates to your studio practice. Drawing has often been mistakenly viewed as a preparatory or even secondary element within traditional studio practices such as painting, sculpture and printmaking. Today, in an expanded field, those outmoded viewpoints only stand to unfairly discriminate and rank modes of realizing concept and form. It is also true that this archaic view of drawing has origins in the humble materials often associated within the practice, such as charcoal, graphite, chalk, and carbon black (ink). These geological elements on top of skin like substrates were once the defining features of the activity, but in a contemporary studio practice it is the artist's prerogative to either work with or challenge historical presets. The role of drawing in a contemporary studio practice may play multiple roles. Together we will look at, practice and explore that very thing through installations, group projects and large scale immersive work.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $100.00

DRAW-1114w: Independent Drawing Project
(Spring 2023, Emma Hogarth and TBA, schedule TBA)

The goal of Independent Drawing Project is for students to develop a distinct, carefully conceived, and self-directed body of works through a process of investigation, critical assessment and production. Through a rigorous studio practice, students are expected to identify and develop their own conceptual interests and material approaches.  Individual and group critiques support, facilitate, and intensify this process. While drawing concentrators will be given priority, interested students outside of the concentration and beyond the sophomore level may take this course. For the drawing concentrator, the work created for the Independent Drawing Project serves as the culmination of the Drawing Concentration program.

RAW 1112: Materials of Drawing
(Spring 2023, Andrew Raftery, Schedule TBA )

Over thousands of years, the materials and methods of drawing have evolved in response to the needs of artists and designers. Technical manuals, patents and other texts record specific drawing techniques. Research into these sources will lead to making actual drawing materials – inks, quill pens, grounds for metal point, chalks, etc. – which will be tested through a range of personal drawing projects and copies of historical works. Trials of newly available drawing materials will yield information about potential uses and permanency. Best practices for care and display of drawings will be covered throughout the course.

Wintersession 2023 Courses

DRAW 1509-01: Drawing Marathon ( Wintersession 2023 , schedules A and B, Gwen Strahle )

Intensive, perceptual drawing class meets from 9am to 9pm, Monday-Friday during the first two weeks of Wintersession and on Schedule B thereafter. A rigorous investigation of drawing from the model and/or large set-up sprawling across classroom. Deeper contact to the drawing experience through sustained exposure. Opportunity for re-invention, change. Confront problems of drawing, build on strengths. Emphasis on drawing consolidation, concentration, stamina, persistence. Regular critiques, slide talks, RISD museum trips. The goals of this course are to facilitate and maintain a continuous flow of drawing energy and examination. Students will re-examine the way they make drawings, in a progressive drawing environment. Through sustained contact with their drawing(s), students will make personal advancement.

DRAW-1122 DRAWING STUDIO GYM (3 Credits) (offered Wintersession 2023, Jessica Tam. Schedule TBA)

The course is designed as a drawing exploration of the relationships between various drawing media and as an introduction to strategies in developing a flexible dialogue between concept and process. Starting with large collaborative group drawings and responding to a series of visual and media prompts, this course challenges students to reconsider their drawings each week through various studio constraints, whether with different media, temporal, or physical limitations. Students will be guided through a generative production of drawings, which they can apply to their own studio practice in the later weeks. Rather than starting with an idea, students will practice finding imagery and creating drawings that build on previous drawings. The course demands energy to engage with physically large drawings, a dedicated and consistent work ethic, and an openness to change and invent. Students are expected to work from both observation and imagination, draw in the studio both independently and collaboratively, attend class lectures, and participate in group discussions. Participants should be ready to experiment and be prepared for their work to go through several surprising transformations. Estimated cost of materials $200.

Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 Courses

DRAW: Drawing in TIME
(Fall 2021, Thursdays 1-6 , Emma Hogarth)

TIME becomes visible, observable and measurable through the evidence of motion.

In drawing, time has been illustrated through various visual strategies, and is also manifested through process; gesture, action, mark and emergent composition. Through process-focused studio research, this course will investigate temporal aspects of drawing, highlighting the experience and evidence of TIME in drawing process and product. Studio experimentation will include: mindful performance of drawing; productive play with visual, cyclical, linear, algorithmic and choreographic approaches to manipulating time. Areas of inquiry may include: theories and concepts of time; graphic visualization of time; performative, interactive and dynamic possibilities of drawing. The course will comprise of in-class exercises, slide/video presentations, critiques and short readings. Students will also engage in independent studio research that will culminate in mid-term and final projects.

DRAW: Drawing in the Expanded Field
(Spring 2022, TBA, Cheeny Celebrado-Royer)

This experimental drawing course will discuss the evolution of drawing-- offering students an extensive investigation into contemporary drawing practices through multidisciplinary approach. The course will focus on the development of students’ individual expressive vision as well as understanding the connections between marks made for drawing and marks made in other materials/mediums. Students will participate in critical discourse through critiques, lectures and creating a body of work pertinent to their individual research.

THAD-H441-01: History of Drawing 
(TBA)

As a stimulus to the imagination, method of investigation, or as a basic means of communication, drawing is a fundamental process of human thought. This class will examine various kinds of drawings from the history of art and visual culture moving chronologically from the medieval to the post-modern. Our studies will have a hands-on approach, meeting behind the scenes in the collections of the RISD Museum. Working from objects directly will be supplemented by readings and writing assignments as well as active classroom discussion.

Wintersession 2022 Courses

DRAW 1509-01: Drawing Marathon 
( Wintersession , schedules A and B, Gwen Strahle )

Intensive, perceptual drawing class meets from 9am to 9pm, Monday-Friday during the first two weeks of Wintersession and on Schedule B thereafter. A rigorous investigation of drawing from the model and/or large set-up sprawling across classroom. Deeper contact to the drawing experience through sustained exposure. Opportunity for re-invention, change. Confront problems of drawing, build on strengths. Emphasis on drawing consolidation, concentration, stamina, persistence. Regular critiques, slide talks, RISD museum trips. The goals of this course are to facilitate and maintain a continuous flow of drawing energy and examination. Students will re-examine the way they make drawings, in a progressive drawing environment. Through sustained contact with their drawing(s), students will make personal advancement.

DRAW-1114w: Independent Drawing Project
(Wintersession 2022, Cheeny Cerebrado-Royer and Emma Hogarth)

The goal of Independent Drawing Project is for students to develop a distinct, carefully conceived, and self-directed body of works through a process of investigation, critical assessment and production. Through a rigorous studio practice, students are expected to identify and develop their own conceptual interests and material approaches.  Individual and group critiques support, facilitate, and intensify this process. While drawing concentrators will be given priority, interested students outside of the concentration and beyond the sophomore level may take this course. For the drawing concentrator, the work created for the Independent Drawing Project serves as the culmination of the Drawing Concentration program.

DRAW-W121 Repetition and Narrative (3 Credits)
(offered Wintersession 2022 by Josh Meier)

Repetition and Narrative: Introduction to Printmaking and Material Culture is an introductory course to printmaking that will explore formal and conceptual fundamentals through the media of screen printing, linoleum block printing, color studies, and drawing. Students investigate the organization of visual elements in order to experience how they engender meaning in an image. Using various modes of expression, students will create works that demonstrate an analysis of composition, color, narrative, and cultural signification. Assignments encourage inquiries into social, historical, technological, and philosophical topics while grounding these fields in a tactile and experiential practice. Critical and experimental use of design principles, which underpin all of the arts, is emphasized. Students are guided through progressive printmaking techniques that build in complexity. Additionally, students gain introductory knowledge of the history of printmaking within the context of global networks, political engagement, and individual artistic expressions. Supplemental readings on aesthetics by Pierre Bourdieu, Tomashi Jackson, Hito Steyerl, Paul Chan, and Anoka Faruqee will round out the course.

DRAW-1122 DRAWING STUDIO GYM (3 Credits)

(offered Wintersession 2022 by Jessica Tam)

The course is designed as a drawing exploration of the relationships between various drawing media and as an introduction to strategies in developing a flexible dialogue between concept and process. Starting with large collaborative group drawings and responding to a series of visual and media prompts, this course challenges students to reconsider their drawings each week through various studio constraints, whether with different media, temporal, or physical limitations. Students will be guided through a generative production of drawings, which they can apply to their own studio practice in the later weeks. Rather than starting with an idea, students will practice finding imagery and creating drawings that build on previous drawings. The course demands energy to engage with physically large drawings, a dedicated and consistent work ethic, and an openness to change and invent. Students are expected to work from both observation and imagination, draw in the studio both independently and collaboratively, attend class lectures, and participate in group discussions. Participants should be ready to experiment and be prepared for their work to go through several surprising transformations. Estimated cost of materials $200.

THAD-W463-01: Science of Art
(Wintersession 2022, Matthew Landrus, schedule: TBA)

This course will examine scientific and technical applications developed by Western artists and visual theorists from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century. Concentrating on pictorial traditions, the course will address what artists, authors and artist/engineers have referred to as scientific, technical, mechanical, and purely mental solutions to optical, proportional and quantitative visual problems. General themes will be perspective, form, color, and mechanical devices, and will include discussions on intellectual training, notebooks, treatises, and collecting. The course will examine artists such as Masaccio, Leonardo, Piero della Francesca, D|rer, Serlio, Carlo Urbino, Cigoli, Rubens, Vel`zquez, Saenredam, Vermeer, Poussin, Andrea Pozzo, Canaletto, Phillip Otto Runge,Turner, Delacroix, Monet, and Seurat.

Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 Courses

DRAW-1114: Independent Drawing Project
(Fall 2020, Thursdays 6:30-9:30pm, Emma Hogarth and Karen Schiff,
Spring 2021: Schedule TBA, Mara Metcalf and Alfredo Gisholt)

The goal of Independent Drawing Project is for students to develop a distinct, carefully conceived, and self-directed body of works through a process of investigation, critical assessment and production. Through a rigorous studio practice, students are expected to identify and develop their own conceptual interests and material approaches.  Individual and group critiques support, facilitate, and intensify this process. While drawing concentrators will be given priority, interested students outside of the concentration and beyond the sophomore level may take this course. For the drawing concentrator, the work created for the Independent Drawing Project serves as the culmination of the Drawing Concentration program.

Open to juniors, seniors and 5th-year students.

THAD-H441-01: History of Drawing 
(Fall 2020, Wednesdays 1:10-4:10pm, Instructor: TBA, Spring 2021: schedule TBA)

As a stimulus to the imagination, method of investigation, or as a basic means of communication, drawing is a fundamental process of human thought. This class will examine various kinds of drawings from the history of art and visual culture moving chronologically from the medieval to the post-modern. Our studies will have a hands-on approach, meeting behind the scenes in the collections of the RISD Museum. Working from objects directly will be supplemented by readings and writing assignments as well as active classroom discussion.

THAD-H441-01: Leonardo da Vinci Drawing
(Fall 2020, Thursdays, 9:40am-12:40 pm, Instructor: TBA, Spring 2021: schedule: TBA)

This course will explore the approaches and contexts of Leonardo da Vinci's draftsmanship.
Studying his drawings and notes, the course will locate his aesthetic and analytical processes in the historical context of Renaissance Italy. A broad range of projects, such as paintings, sculpture, treatises, machines, biological investigation, weapons, maps, festivals, built environments, and studies of natural philosophy will be considered, as will the works of Leonardo's teacher, Verrocchio.

Although this is a THAD course for Liberal Arts credit, several of our meetings will be held in the RISD Nature Lab for in-class drawing assignments. Writing assignment will also be done in class.

SCULP-2176-01: Operational Drawing
(Fall 2020, Wednesdays 11:10am-4:10pm, Dean Snyder. 3 spots available for Drawing Concentrators)

What is Operational Drawing? This considers the question by making works that address how we image the body in time and space with tools and media. Akin to dance, drawing just might be the next human activity that engages a spontaneous simultaneous interplay of thought, action and acting upon. In this studio we will be working together and individually to explore how drawing relates to your studio practice. Drawing has often been mistakenly viewed as a preparatory or even secondary element within traditional studio practices such as painting, sculpture and printmaking. Today, in an expanded field, those outmoded viewpoints only stand to unfairly discriminate and rank modes of realizing concept and form. It is also true that this archaic view of drawing has origins in the humble materials often associated within the practice, such as charcoal, graphite, chalk, and carbon black (ink). These geological elements on top of skin like substrates were once the defining features of the activity, but in a contemporary studio practice it is the artist's prerogative to either work with or challenge historical presets. The role of drawing in a contemporary studio practice may play multiple roles. Together we will look at, practice and explore that very thing through installations, group projects and large scale immersive work.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $100.00

Wintersession 2021 Courses

The Universal and the Particular: Drawing as Global Inclusion
(Wintersession 2021, remote, Randy Williams)

 “The Impulse to draw is as natural as the impulse to talk.”

         Kimon Nicolaides

All art made and perceived is filtered through our experiences. Scrutinized experiences can foster profound ideas. Effective communication of those ideas can promote profound creative acts. A sincere combination of filtered experiences and well-communicated ideas can help artists to create meaning and profound art. This course will explore and examine traditional as well as contemporary systems of drawing. An emphasis will be placed on the natural environment and its impact on visual literacy. The principles of design and the elements of art will be used to underscore the arts as a universal language. We will also examine our immediate environment and align it with our aesthetic views of global inclusion. The course will focus on developing tools for communicating effective techniques in seeing and drawings. We will use familiar content while employing experimental practices to produce a collection of drawings. Our drawings will be well researched and yet uniquely reflective of each student. In this course, we will be looking at our secrets, mysteries, and passions as a source for inspiration. This course will involve some light readings; discipline and self-analysis will be our constant mantras. In this course, we will be frequently reminded that repetition is the constant companion of nature.

Estimated Materials Cost: $50.00 - $150.00

Innovative Drawing Techniques
(Wintersession 2021, remote, Hilary Doyle)

This online course focuses on learning and developing innovative methods and techniques in each artist's drawing practice. Course projects include: using drawing tools in new ways, DIY printmaking, frottage and rubbings, digital or iPhone drawing, and making your own drawing tools. Each project begins with a lecture and/or live demos or videos. Artists start each project by making experimental charts of marks. Then they sketch and plan ideas and create source material before creating ambitious, original drawings. Students use their personal mark-making processes discovered in the charts and experiments in larger works.

Artists are encouraged to develop meaningful drawing processes that are relevant to the content and subject in their work. Group and individual critiques of assignments provide feedback, dialogue, and prompts. Students will also create short videos demonstrating a favorite technique discovered in the class. The class culminates in a series of work inspired by the many methods developed and learned in class.

The Possibilities of Narrative Figure Drawing 
( Wintersession 2021, remote, Jim Peters )

This class will explore the possibilities of drawing-based narrative figurative art. We will be experimenting with assemblages, collages and 3D constructions of drawn images. Sources and investigation will include but not be limited to the photo collages of Romare Bearden, the prints by 17thand 18thcentury Japanese Ukiyo-e artists, the 3D constructions of Mimi Gross and Red Grooms, the film collages of Eisenstein and the French New Wave, together with the concepts of stage design and story boarding. 

We will investigate the structure of SPACE and its relationship to the FIGURE(S) – deep space verses shallow space; the placement of the figure on the paper, canvas, stage, etc; the constricted interior space suggesting intimacy or tension.

Any visual creation with two or more figures creates/implies a “story,” a “narrative relationship.” In this class we will use drawing to experiment, to delve into, the many possibilities to express and construct that narrative.

Drawing for this class can include charcoal, graphite, inks, Caran d'Ache, and water based paint. Each student will maintain a “studio area” consisting of a work table and adjacent wall space on which to work, review, and present their creations.

This online course will be conducted in three different formats: The entire class, in smaller groups and one on one. Also there will be weekly “office hours” where any student may contact me via Zoom if you have questions or concerns relating to class work or personal issues. Students may email me at any time.