The eLearning Center for Jacob's The eLearning Centre

Our brand new fine arts training program incorporates four courses to help you develop and unleash your full artistic potential in painting and drawing.

Begin with a foundation in the history of art. Understand the contexts in which art has been created over the centuries, learn to identify styles and techniques the artists have used, and cultivate your critical and analytical abilities. Move on to basic drawing and figure drawing. Explore the concepts of line, mass, form, perspective, value, and composition. Understand how the body’s anatomy affects its external form and movement, and learn how to capture realistic and expressive portraits. Finally, pick up your paintbrush and study a systematic and time-honored approach to oil painting that enables you to capture proportion, perspective, and lighting in the world around you.

Each of these courses features ample opportunity for feedback and critique, and with the help of instructors who are accomplished artists themselves, your artistic talents will blossom fully.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this program, students will:

o Develop an understanding of the materials and techniques used in drawings, paintings, prints, and sculptures.
o Identify and discuss key turning points in the history of art and their impact on styles and techniques.
o Knowledgably analyze and discuss art with different historical periods and art movements including Classical Greece and Rome, Renaissance, Baroque, Romanticism, Impressionism, and early 20th century styles.
o Build a foundation in drawing skills by creating and submitting for feedback more than twenty still life drawings.
o Set up a drawing studio for still life work and handle drawing materials appropriately (pencil, drawing board), developing a good basic drawing technique.
o Identify and represent in drawing the basic elements of form (line, plane, mass) and the fundamental geometrical shapes of subjects.
o Build a foundation in life drawing skills by creating and submitting for feedback more than twenty figure drawings.
o See and apply in your drawing the standard measurements and proportions of the human figure.
o See and apply in your figure drawing the characteristic shapes and proportions of the human skeleton.
o Learn a step by step method for oil painting that will provide a foundation for all your future work.
o Use basic drawing skills as effective preparation for oil painting compositions.
o Create preparatory pencil sketches demonstrating perspective, shading, and contour.

I. History of Art
• Lesson 1: The Language of Art
• Lesson 2: Looking at Nature
• Lesson 3: Art and the Human Body
• Lesson 4: Art and the Social Realm
• Lesson 5: Art and Religion
• Lesson 6: Art and the Politics of Power

II. Drawing I
• Lesson 1: Seeing Things Together
• Lesson 2: Representing Form
• Lesson 3: Structural Lines
• Lesson 4: Light Part, Dark Part
• Lesson 5: Adding Value
• Lesson 6: Composition and Depth

III. Figure Drawing
• Lesson 1: Measurements and Proportions
• Lesson 2: The Human Skeleton
• Lesson 3: Muscles and Anatomy
• Lesson 4: The Portrait
• Lesson 5: Volume, Perspective, and Shading
• Lesson 6: Composition and Expression

IV. Painting I
• Lesson 1: Preliminary Drawing
• Lesson 2: Materials, Workspace, and Canvas
• Lesson 3: Light and Value
• Lesson 4: Combining Color in Paint
• Lesson 5: Painting Techniques
• Lesson 6: Making a Painting