Visual Arts Courses

Beginning Drawing and Beyond

Description: This course introduces the basic principles, elements, and practices of drawing, employing a wide range of subject matter and drawing media. The course focuses on perceptually-based drawing, observational methods, technical abilities, and creative thinking. The goal of this course is to give students practical drawing methods through drawing different subject matters: animals, figure drawing/character design, still life/props, landscape/worldbuilding, portraiture, vehicle design, and others. This course builds the drawing fundamentals important for further creations in design, illustration, painting, and sculpture.

CNC Woodworking

Description: The CNC Woodworking class takes the student through the process of planning, designing, programming, and running projects on a Shopbot CNC machine. The students learn the process and create original pieces. They will have the opportunity to choose and design their own projects and see them through to a final product. Students are limited only by their imaginations in this class. As they master the Vcarve software, they will see their ideas come to fruition. Time will be divided between computer-aided design and woodworking. Students will learn the software and design their projects. The second portion of the class will take place in the woodshop, where their projects will be created using the CNC Shopbot machine.

Desktop Publishing & Yearbook

Description: This course utilizes the computer software Adobe Creative Suite to produce the school's yearbook. Targeted skills include using digital cameras, scanners, preparing photographs for publication, page layout and design, and meeting a publisher's deadlines.

Hand-Built Pottery

Description: Hand-Built Pottery covers the basics of creating pottery by hand. Students will be exposed to the main terms and techniques that accompany the making of pottery. The first half of the course focuses on learning the process for creating with clay, and students will be asked to follow along with task-specific demonstrations to understand fully how a technique works and its purpose. The basic hand techniques of coil, pinch pot, and slab construction will be taught. Students will be required to make preparatory sketches in their sketchbooks to plan their individual pieces. Once proficient with these processes, students will plan and create their own pottery pieces to be glazed and fired in the kiln to presentation-worthy completion.

Introduction to Comic Making

Description: This course covers the comic-making process through three short-length major projects. The first project will ask students to create a one-page, six-panel self-portrait comic using the basic sequential narrative design. The second will require students to find a preexisting text song lyrics, an excerpt from a movie or animation script, a part of a novel, for example and then make it into a five-page comic. The final project will ask students to write and illustrate their own original story in a five- to six-page format. Each project will feature a cycle of smaller assignments that focus on the elements of comic creation: brainstorming, researching, scriptwriting, character design, thumbnails, penciling, inking, lettering, and use of colors/gray tones. The goal of this course is to provide an experience of making comics and a sense of visual storytelling.

Maker Challenge

Description: Have you ever looked at something and wondered, "How did they do that?" In the Maker Challenge course, students will look at these very questions and work to answer them. Using design processes, we will explore unique challenges and work together to explore questions like how the pyramids or Stonehenge were constructed. In a collaborative studio atmosphere, students will engage in research, design thinking, and prototype construction. Students also have the opportunity to pursue individual projects.

Making with Metal

Description: In this course, students will be introduced to different areas of working with metal. Whether it is to solve a problem or to create a piece of art, metal can be used in many ways. We will explore welding and its applications, metal forging and shaping, sheet metal and assorted types of steel stock, and silversmithing. Students will start with instruction, be assigned several challenges, and then decide on a final project.

Making with Resin

Description: Students in Making with Resin explore the different applications of epoxy resin. Instruction will emphasize proper pour measurements, coloring, and use of molds. Students will research and decide on individual projects combining resin with the use of the CNC woodworking machine to create unique resin molds.

Mixed Art Media

Description: Mixed Art Media explores the use of nearly all materials found in the art room. Students will cover techniques that apply to each of the specific materials introduced, and the class will culminate in a final project using at least three of the techniques explored in class. The art making will take two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms. Throughout this class, students will be asked to explore and plan with the help of a personal process book, much like an art journal. This course also targets the development of exploratory skills, time management, and perseverance.

Outdoor Watercolor

Description: The Outdoor Watercolor class encourages students to strengthen their observational sketching skills. Throughout the course, students will work on timed sketches with pencil and watercolor. The focus is on portraying objects as shapes and using natural light to create value. This course will take place outdoors to provide the class with endless subjects to sketch and paint. By the end of the course, students will have strengthened observational skills and understand the process that an image goes through to get from their eyes to the paper. Students will also begin developing their own style of sketch from observation. The class will end with a final project for which students pick one subject as their focus for a week, resulting in either a vignette of drawings or one final, large watercolor.

Pottery Lab

Description: This lab course provides access to the pottery studio for an advanced pottery student to use the wheel independently. Students enrolling in the Pottery Lab must be self-sufficient and experienced on the wheel.

Screen Printing for Commercial Graphics

Description: This course utilizes the graphics process of screen printing, focusing on projects such as t-shirts, stickers, and posters found in the commercial graphics field. In screen-printing, the principle involved is forcing ink through a stenciled screen. Procedures for making screens will include both hand-cut and photographic methods.

Studio Art & Portfolio Preparation (11)

Description: The purpose of this course is to guide students in developing a portfolio that will be representative of their most complete and expressive work. Students will complete a process book along with their finished portfolio pieces. There are weekly homework assignments to accompany the techniques learned in class and to provide students with the opportunity to expand their individual ideas for art pieces. Students complete a significant amount of observational work to develop their foundational art skills, but they are encouraged to continue creating with their own styles. Student interest will also influence which techniques and media the class will explore further.

Studio Art & Portfolio Preparation (12)

Description: The purpose of this course is to guide students in developing a portfolio that will be representative of their most complete and expressive work. Students will complete a process book along with their finished portfolio pieces. There are weekly homework assignments to accompany the techniques learned in class and to provide students with the opportunity to expand their individual ideas for art pieces. Students complete a significant amount of observational work to develop their foundational art skills, but they are encouraged to continue creating with their own styles. Student interest will also influence which techniques and media the class will explore further.

The Art of Weaving

Description: The Art of Weaving is for both first-time and experienced weavers. First-time weavers learn how to create a hand-woven scarf by designing a scarf, warping the loom, and weaving the scarf from bambu-7 yarn. Experienced weavers may select from a variety of projects (e.g., scarves, table placemats, mug rugs, table runners). Students may also choose from a variety of yarns (e.g., cotton, linen, alpaca wool) with the goal of becoming independent weavers by course completion.

Women in Metal Work

Description: Whether it is to solve a problem or to create a piece of art, metal can be used in many ways. In this course, young women are introduced to different areas of working with metal, including welding, silversmithing, and forging in the context of a female-only course section. Students will start with instruction, be assigned a group challenge, explore silversmithing, and then decide on a final project.

Woodworking

Description: The Woodworking course acquaints students with the essential principles of woodworking. Topics include wood characteristics, use of hand tools, portable power tools, and basic machinery. Emphasis is placed on proper technique, safety, and policies for the woodshop. Students complete a project designed to develop primary woodworking skills.

Woodworking: Box Making

Description: In this course, students learn basic woodworking techniques, power/hand tool use, and safety while making a small box project. The project will start with a student-generated design idea, developed cooperatively with the teacher. As the design evolves, the student will learn about design aspects as well as how various woodworking techniques play an important role in the project's development. Students will complete a small box of their own design.