How to Draw: Foundations is an art course for any young artist interested in learning or brushing up on the absolute fundamentals of drawing. This course includes a series of lessons focused on foundational topics in drawing including materials, holding pencils, and making marks, constructing objects with basic shapes, how to use references and set scenes, value creation and more. How to Draw: Foundations will encourage young artists to PLAY, LEARN, and PRACTICE through every class by giving them the opportunity to engage with the topic of the lesson, introducing fun and easy exercises or assignments, and building good art practice habits. 

 "How to Draw" classes are art courses based of the fundamental techniques of art and drawing. These courses are designed to teach young artists how to draw anything by building important skills such as mark-making, line drawing, shading, proportions, and more though the lens of observational drawing. Observational art is a method of drawing that emphasizes visual perception with three principles in mind: understanding of the subject, building looking skills, and practice of artistic technique. These classes combine lecture periods, worksheets, and free-hand drawing time to ensure learners understand the material and get ample practice time. This course is suitable for any young artist looking to build a strong art foundation.

Lesson 1: Materials 
The world of art materials is huge! There are so many supplies and many ways to use each. This class will focus on introducing artists pencils, charcoal, colored pencils, alcohol markers, erasers, and paper to young artists through play and brief discussions. Learners will be asked to draw with their tools to make as many different marks as possible and use their tools in new ways. Young artists will create “journal pages” dedicated to each tool with notes on how to use them and what marks they make. Throughout our class, we will discuss the importance of practicing art and how to get in the habit of practice.

Lesson 2: Making Marks & Lines
Mark making is the basis of all art, so it is super important to know the basic marks most subjects are composed of and practice creating lines. Most subjects are made with three basic line shapes: C, S and I. In addition, there are various ways to vary the stroke or mark to get different effects. This class will cover basic mark making skills and ways to vary line. Young artists will get to practice blind contour drawing and draw a creature using their line shapes and stroke variation. During our class, we will talk about the value of warm-up exercises. 

 Lesson 3: Using References & Constructing Scenes 
Art can be produced from two primary places: the imagination and the reference. It can be difficult to draw everything from imagination, which is why using references is so important. In this class, young artists will learn the importance of using references, how to find and use good references, what “drawing from life means”, and how to create their own references by constructing scenes. We will also discuss how to find good references through various sources, including online, magazines, books, and others. In this class, young artists will practice scene composition with a variety of objects of their choosing, create thumbnail sketches, and play an “Either Or” game to decide between good and bad references. For this class, learners will need to bring objects of various sizes and shapes, along with any magazines, books, or other media they might have with interesting photos. 

Lesson 4: Constructing Objects
Construction, in art, is the ability to simplify subjects and draw subjects with basic shapes or forms. For example, it’s looking at a can of soda and identifying that it is made with a cylinder form. Of course, subjects can be much more complex, like faces and human figures. This process of simplification is one of the most important parts of drawing! In this class, we will begin by practicing drawing simple shapes and forms such as circles, spheres, boxes, cylinders and more. Young artists will then be shown a series of subjects and be asked to identify the shapes or forms the subject is made from. These subjects will start simple but become more complex as the class goes on. Finally, learners will use their knowledge to practice drawing subjects from references of their choosing. During our class, we will talk about taking breaks and doing simple wrist stretches to prevent fatigue. In this class, learners will need to bring objects of different shapes to class to practice drawing. 

Lesson 5: Depicting Space
Space is the illusion of depth or perspective in an artwork. There are many ways to create a sense of space in art including overlapping shapes, color change, difference in detail, one-point and two-point perspective, atmospheric perspective, and others. In this class, we will go over and practice creating the illusion of space in our work. Young artists will revisit thumbnail sketches and box drawing practice to learn about drawing space. 

Lesson 6: Values
Value is an important element of art and aspect of composition; it is the lightness or darkness of a color. Strong artworks rely on a good value sense to be able to tell a story, set a tone, model subjects, and create interest through contrast. In this class, young artists will learn about what values and contrast are, learn the parts of a shadow, and practice value studies with simple objects. In this class, learners will need to bring simple objects in various shapes and forms to class.
 
Lesson 7: Textures 
The ability to create a sense of how something feels is texture. Creating texture in art can be difficult, but with our knowledge of lines and values from previous classes and some practice, it will be easy to achieve interesting textures in our artwork. This class will begin with a brief review of our Values and Making Marks & Lines lesson. Then, we will practice creating textures with a helpful Texture Worksheet and make texture cubes. In this class, learners will need to bring three to five objects with interesting textures. 

Lesson 8: Basic Compositional Forms 
Composition is one of the trickiest elements of art to master because it takes lots of practice and exploration. In this class, young artists will learn about the eight elements of composition (unity, balance, movement, rhythm, focus, contrast, pattern, proportion) and several composition shapes (Z, O, U, L, I, X, triangle, steelyard, radiating, and the rule of thirds). They will practice thumbnail sketches that attempt each shape with objects of their choosing with the challenge of incorporating all eight elements. In this class, learners will need to bring a variety of objects to arrange and draw. 

Lesson 9: Color 
The study of color can be complicated, but this lesson will teach the basics of classic color theory using the RYB subtractive color mixing model. In this class, young artists will learn about the three elements of color (hue, saturation, value), how to categorize color (primary, secondary, tertiary, warm, and cool), and basic rules for mixing colors. They will practice what they’ve learned through the creation of a color wheel and a short object painting using a category of their choice. In this class, learners will need watercolor paper, soft brushes, watercolor paints in red, yellow, blue, black, and white as well as an object of their choice to paint.

Lesson 10: Final project 
Throughout the past few lessons, young artists have learned all the foundational skills needed to be a great artist. In our final class together, they will have the opportunity to create an artwork of any type of any subject using any materials they like. This open, student-led project will be a great way for young artists to demonstrate their passion and show off their new skills!