Weekly Class Activities

All illustration and creativity activities will cycle back to the beginning every four weeks, or be variated spontaneously depending upon the skill level of each week's group of students.  Over a four week period, eventually each exercise will be introduced and practiced in class.

In this unique ongoing class the teacher will demonstrate the craft of spontaneous art generation.  Employing a variety of abstract art and cartooning games in the "Dadaist" tradition, students learn techniques to improvise and illustrate uniquely original creations.

The majority of class activities revolve around the spontaneous illustration of unique abstract characters and black-and-white designs.  Students begin each exercise by scribbling several random circles, waves, lines, dots, zig-zags, cubes, etc.   

Using improvisational illustration techniques demonstrated by the teacher, students will engage in these specific activities:


1. Week of Dec. 5th:

- "Spaghetti":  Draw a series of long horizontal "waves" and "S" shapes to create a visual opportunity for abstract faces and creatures.  Seek-out eye shapes and other patterns to create high contrast black and white artwork.


2. Week of Dec. 12th:

- "Scribble Face":  Close your eyes and draw six or eight random scribbles on a piece of paper. Then open your eyes and rotate the paper to discover opportunities to draw over your scribbles to create a strange face or creature.


3. Week of Dec. 19th:

- "Blobbies":  On a blank piece of paper, draw two or three random, rounded "blob" shapes.   Turn your paper around and look for opportunities to draw eyes, noses, mouths, antenna, tentacles, etc., to design a uniquely  silly creature. 


  4. Week of Dec. 26th:  

- "Circles":  Begin by drawing a series of overlapping patterns using perfect circle shapes such as tape rolls or water glasses of different sizes.  Once an interesting pattern is achieved, colo+r half of the shapes you see with solid black to "balance" the contrast of your artwork.

- "Triangles":  Similar to the "circles" exercise, begin by drawing a series of long crossing straight lines that overlap across the paper.  Once an interesting angular pattern is achieved, color half of the triangular shapes you see to "balance" the contrast of your artwork in black and white.


NOTE:  This is a live class and the instructor uses a 2-camera system to feature specific illustration styles and techniques.  Students are encouraged to spontaneously interact with the instructor and others during most exercises.