Art Along | Food Drawing

Art Along | Food Drawing is a casual on-going mixed-media art and social class. This class meets weekly and subscribers are charged accordingly every Sunday morning. Learners may cancel their subscription at any time. For this class, that means that learners will have the opportunity to practice drawing food, learning about new foods from their peers, developing art skills, socializing, and having fun. 

Every week class will begin with a short drawing exercise or lesson, such as a prompt, blind contour drawing, composition sketches, mark-making exercises, value scales, texture cubes, and others. Each exercise will be taught with a live demo. This five to ten minute drawing exercise will get creative juices flowing that will help focus our brains on the art! After our exercise is over, young artists will begin to work on their food artwork. They may choose to draw a meal they have had during the week, their favorite foods, a dish they would like to try, or whatever food-related subject they are interested in depicting. No matter the subject, young artists MUST draw from life or reference! During our drawing sessions, learners will be encouraged to socialize by asking questions, describing their foods, sharing art tips and tricks, and having other discussions.

Since this is a mixed-media art class, every week I will Art Along with learners in a different medium. With each new media, I will explain the materials I am using them and what I like about it. I will also demonstrate different techniques for each new medium. Young artists can choose to use the same media as me, or work with their preferred tools. 
 
After each class, learners will be asked to submit their artwork to the Outschool classroom page. They may do this by attaching a scanned or photographed image of their work to a comment under the corresponding post for that week. Learners will have the opportunity, and will be encouraged, to comment on their peers work while I will give learners private feedback. They may also share their work with me privately through the learner conversations tab. Young artists can also volunteer to share their artwork in class! 

Schedule is subject to change based on section and learner needs. Since the subject matter (food) for the course remains the same, this schedule outlines the exercises and mediums I plan to use for each week. 

Winter 2025
Week of January 27th: Learning the elements of art through food - form focus. Warm up of practicing drawing basic forms, then constructing food references into form.

Week of February 3rd:  Learning the elements of art through food - value focus. Warm up of practicing value scales in steps, explanation of the laws of light and parts of a shadow. Then, practicing value blocking food subjects. 
Week of February 10th:  Learning the elements of art through food - value focus. Warm up analyzing works of art with food as it subject and asking how the lighting conditions change the tone of the artwork. Then, practicing drawing a single subject with different lighting conditions. 
Week of February 17th: Learning the elements of art through food - value focus. Warm up of practicing different shading techniques and learning the difference between a hard and soft edge. Longer drawing of a single food subject with a focus on developing good shading. 
Week of February 24th: Learning the elements of art through food - texture focus. Warm up of practicing drawing common food textures, then drawing foods with a variety of textures. 

Spring 2025: 
Week of March 3rd: Learning the elements of art through food - texture and composition focus. Warm up of learning to draw shiny textures, examining works of art for composition purposes 
Week of March 10th: Learning the elements of art through food - composition focus. Completing composition sketches 
Week of March 17th: Food illustration - drawing a meal / food of learners choice
Week of March 24th: Food illustration - drawing and/or finishing food of learners choice 

Week of March 31st: Introduction of Watercolors - Monochromatic paintings of simple food
Week of April 7th: Introduction of Watercolors - Color matching of foods 
Week of April 14: Introduction of Watercolors - How to create food textures with watercolor 
Week of April 28th: Introduction of Watercolors - Controlling negative space