Drawing for the Absolute Beginner

Gain a solid foundation in the basics of drawing to become the artist you've always wanted to be. This course will help you become familiar with paper type, drawing styles, techniques, and basic principles of perspective, layout and design.

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6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs
Starting  February 12, 2025
Offered in partnership with your preferred school

Florida International University

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Drawing for the Absolute Beginner

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Course code: drw

If you've always been interested in drawing but don't really know how to get started, then this is the course for you. Gain a solid foundation and understanding of the basics of drawing and become the artist you've always dreamed you could be!

You'll become intimately familiar with paper types, drawing styles, rendering techniques, and the basic principles of perspective, layout, design, lighting, volume, and space. If you have an interest in learning what it's like to draw or would love to increase your current knowledge in the field of art and illustrating, then this course aims to fulfill all of your needs.

What you will learn

  • Gain an understanding of the basics of drawing
  • Become familiar with paper types, drawing styles, and rendering techniques
  • Learn the basic principles of perspective, layout, design, lighting, volume, and space

How you will benefit

  • Gain the confidence you need to experiment with new art supplies and techniques
  • Learn to create realistic drawings with the color, light, depth and perspective of a professional artist
  • Develop a new hobby that will allow you to experience the world around you in new ways
  • Learn to tap into your creative thoughts and put them on display for the world to see

How the course is taught

  • Instructor-Moderated online course
  • 6 Weeks access
  • 24 course hours

Have you ever wondered what kind of tools you would need to become an artist? Going into an art store can sometimes be overwhelming, so in the first lesson, you're going to take a look at the basic tools and supplies an artist needs for various projects. After you understand the tool set, you'll be prepared to confidently go to your local art store and start experimenting with supplies!

With your art supplies in hand, it's time you get a firm understanding of drawing basics. In this lesson, you'll look at the importance of the silhouette and the outlining shape. When beginning to draw, it's so important that you understand the shapes you look at and how to put them onto paper. You'll also learn an amazingly fun one-eye drawing trick!

This lesson will go over the two major components of drawing for the beginner. You'll find that the first challenge you're faced with is drawing from things you see. This is, after all, how people learn to draw. You'll gain lots of great tips on how to draw what you see, how to set up scenes for photographs, and much more.

Did you know that there are five forms of light? That's right! In this lesson, you'll learn how to illuminate the scene and change the mood all at once. The lesson will go over lighting and shading so that you'll have all the knowledge a beginning artist needs when learning how to sketch (and more). Have you ever drawn a picture and realized that it looked quite flat? Well, that might be because you never added light to your images. The lesson will show you how to add light, and more importantly, shading!

Perspective has always been a necessity for anyone drawing pictures with depth. If you wanted to draw a set of buildings and have the viewer looking down the road, how would you do it? One, two, and even three-point perspective is how! In this lesson, you'll learn how to find the horizon line, create depth in your page, and even find the vanishing points of your lines.

It's time to make a spoon "feel" like a spoon and a rock "feel" like a rock. When you're drawing objects, it's important to create the sense of realism with line work. So in this lesson, you'll go over some important rendering techniques that will give you a jump start toward understanding gradation, line weight, and stylization, all of which will get you on the road to finding your own style and creative expression.

It's all about telling your story! If you see a drawing of a big arrow pointing to the right, you'd probably look to the right, wouldn't you? In this lesson, you'll look at what it takes to persuade your audience to look at certain spots on your images at particular times without a big arrow. Sounds tough, doesn't it? Don't worry, because the lesson will show you some great methods and proven techniques for controlling everything you draw.

It's time to put your skills to the test! In this lesson, you'll work up an entire scene with thumbnails and then begin working on a first draft. A discussion on creating landscapes will help you gain confidence in your skills that you've been working on up to this point. You'll also look at how to render your scenes with realistic lighting and shading while keeping the flow entertaining and informative.

Do pink and blue go together? Great question! What about the shadow color on an apple? What's the complement to green? Creating images in color requires you to take your artistic understanding to a whole new level. This lesson on color composition will be one of the most exciting and rewarding lessons in your art education!

This lesson will walk you through the future. That's right—you're going to look at and draw the techno future. You know those cool robots in movies and orbital vehicles flying around in space? Well, after you complete this lesson, you'll have a great understanding of how to create your very own future.

This lesson is a great chance to get up close and personal with animals because it's packed full of measurements, proportions, and basic shapes for many of the animals around you. You'll be using a lot of what you've learned from the previous lessons in this course in order to bring your animal together. You'll also look at step-by-step techniques and sketches you can use to help draw monkeys and other crazy animals. It's time to stop monkeying around and start drawing!

In the final lesson, you'll explore the human brain and how it functions to create art, memorizing and interpreting the world around you and keeping everything slightly straight in the process. You'll take those images and thoughts in your head and put them down on paper for everyone to see and enjoy!

Chad Walker

Chad Walker is the conceptual designer and artist of several award-winning games, including "Age Of Empires, "Age of Kings," and "Age of Conquerors." He attended the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Arts Inc. and has worked as a computer game artist, comic book illustrator, and instructor. He teaches both traditional art courses and courses in 3D modeling for computer games. Walker co-wrote the popular gaming book "Game Modeling Using Low Polygon Techniques" with his twin brother Eric. They are the co-founders of Walker Boys Studio, which produced the highly acclaimed "Civil War: War Between the States."

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 8 or later.
  • Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  • Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.​

Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.​

Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.​

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