Course Syllabus

JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "AS 204-2"
COURSE NAME: "Painting"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Fall 2022

SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Michele Tocca
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS: TH 3:30 PM 6:15 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: This class requires a materials fee of €75/$85 to cover all basic art supplies.
OFFICE HOURS:

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course introduces the basic issues of oil painting through a series of classic problems: the still life, figure study, portrait and others. Emphasis is on control of color and light and dark value, while building form in a coherent pictorial space. Oil is the preferred medium, and students buy their own materials. The course introduces connections between studio work and the history of painting.

SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:

What is painting? What is its relationship to life and the world around? What distinguishes painting from other segments of the visible? The threshold between the seen and seemed, reality and imagination, is the program’s thematic framework, through which students will be guided to familiarize with a variety of basic artistic questions and tropes concerning pictorial perception, subjectivity, metaphor, illusion with an emphasis on making.

Traditions, material approaches and wider critical and philosophical inquiries implied in oil painting will be introduced and explored over classes aimed at discovering the students' own personal responses. Painting’s constituent elements – shape, mark-making, colour, materials, surface – will be investigated via the presentation of single key-words, each representing an aspect of the creative process, from which to develop process-based tasks, studio time, presentations, discussions, readings and visits.

The course is therefore an immersion in what painting can add to the experience of the world, expanding it and encouraging lateral thinking with an attention to the fruitful differences with other fields of experience (environment, communication, information, technology).

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Demonstrate a verbal understanding of fundamental traditions and problems in painting and apply this with growing skill in representing form within space.

Demonstrate a growing ability to apply color theory, use tone and compositional strategies within your work.

Demonstrate an ability within your work to analyse the interdependency between form and content within paintings.

Demonstrate an ability to critically reflect upon your own work and the work of others via group critiques and visits to museums and galleries.

TEXTBOOK:

NONE

REQUIRED RESERVED READING:

NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:

NONE

GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:

Assignment	Guidelines	Weight
Group Critiques	Assignments and independent projects will be given throughout the course and will be presented and assessed during group critiques. There will be two formal critiques - one at mid-term and the other during finals’ week. Students will be required to present their work to the class and to answer questions about their work by the professor. Students will be encouraged to comment on the work of their classmates. Attendance is mandatory. Failure to be present will result in a significant drop in assessment at the end of the term.	25
Final Portfolio	The students' final body of works must reflect an awareness of their identity and potential as practitioners, giving evidence of their commitment to their specific areas of interest. Evaluation criteria include: experimentation, resourcefulness, inventiveness, expressiveness, acuity of observation, concision, complexity, improvement, intentionality, spatial clarity, awareness of historical models, and other aspects of technical skill and artistic quality.	60
Attendance, participation and contribution to group critiques	Attendance is mandatory. Independent work will be expected from each student. Students should expect to spend at least three days a week on developing and finishing projects.	15

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality shows excellent mastery of the course content along with exceptional levels of technical skill, artistic awareness, originality, resourcefulness, commitment, quantity of work and improvement. There has been excellent collaboration and leadership in group projects, and there have been no attendance problems.
BA highly competent level of performance with work that directly addresses the content of the course, with a good quantity of work produced.
CAn acceptable level of performance: the work shows awareness of the course content, but is very limited in quantity, quality, commitment and skill.
DThe student lacks a coherent grasp of the course material and has failed to produce much work.
FNegligent in attendance, academic honesty, engagement with the course content, or production of work.

-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY
You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until ____________

ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.

STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.

SCHEDULE

Introduction to course – The 'Seen' and 'Seemed': Painting Experience, Pictorial Space, Styles and Signature, Genres.

Stains and shapes - oil paint: light and colours, density and evanescence, qualities and values...

Presentation of sketchbook

Drawing and painting: observation, memory, translation, expression

View-finders and pictorial perception: the making and use of grids and mirrors to frame and sketch views (proportions, negative and positive space, perspective and flatness)

Oil sketch: knowing through paint

Mid-term Critique

From sketch to painting

(how to prepare a surface; painting studies and finish; pictorial series)

Alla-prima painting

Impasto painting

10.

Layering painting

11.

Painting genres. Possibilities and limits

12.

Identification of individual project and context

Initial painted studies in response to individual project.

13.

Colour painting on canvas.

14.

Completion of colour painting on canvas and preparation of exhibition.

15.

Final Critique