Each class meets at a different site of historical and visual interest around Rome. Students make drawings from observation in their sketchbooks creating a record of their experiences and of the sites they are seeing. The beginning of each class meeting is dedicated to a brief discussion of the site, and the presentation of an issue to be addressed in drawing. Some of the basic drawing issues addressed in specific lessons include: centering the subject on the page, the uses and the values of line, rendering form in light and dark, creating space and visual drama through various kinds of contrast, practical advice on perspective, specifying point of view, creating atmosphere, faces and figures from classical statuary and so on.

Additional information:
1. The course involves working from direct observation.

2. The course will require you buying a MIC Card (Euro 5 then free entry to all communal museums) as will be visiting three different communal museums that otherwise would cost around Euro 35.
3. The core activity is drawing directly from observation. You will not be able to meet the requirements of the course without working many hours outside of class.
4. The class meets rain or shine.
5. The course is meant to be a framework allowing very free individual artistic choices. The lessons are meant to help students get started, but there is always room for creative alternatives.
6. Students must come to class on time because that is when the site is explained, and the day's drawing problem and other announcements are given.
7. Students need to dress appropriately: proper footwear, no bare shoulders in churches, hats and sunscreen, warm clothing when the weather turns cold. Decorous behavior in public spaces.
8. Be sure to plan your morning itinerary in order to arrive promptly at the site at 9:00. Be alert for announcements of changes to the preliminary schedule below.

Materials:
Students buy their own art supplies. You need preferably a sewn bound (not spiral or glued) sketchbook of A4 format (approx. 29 x 21 cm). The drawing instruments are up to you, but most students use a variety of pencils, or soft, dark graphite. You need erasers and a pencil sharpener. Ink, pens and brushes are fine, but optional. I do not recommend your using soft charcoal or pastel, as the image quickly degrades in the sketchbook, even when you use fixative.

There is no textbook.

Art supply stores: Poggi (three locations, one in Trastevere on Via Merry del Val 18, just off Viale Trastevere, the other on Via Pie’ di Marmo, near the Pantheon and the third in Via Ripetta 68 not far from Piazza del Popolo); and Vertecchi, a chain with many branches, including one near Piazza di Spagna. Drawing supplies can also found in stationary stores (cartolerie); the Feltrinelli bookstores have Moleskin drawing and sketching books, which hold up well.

SCHEDULE

PROVISIONAL SCHEDULE by week, but stay alert for changes:

1. September 1^st. Introduction. Meet at JCU Art Studio, Largo dei Fiorentini, 1. Introduction to the course and discussion on materials needed. PPT on “Sketchbook Materials”. Introduction to two opposed languages of drawing, line vs. tonal value and to composition. PPT on “Notes on Composition”. A walk to the Art Supply store to buy all required.

Assignment 1: Two drawing of your choice, so as to understand the initial level of each one.

2. Sept 8^th. Meet at Piazza del Campidoglio (the piazza of the Capitoline Hill, up the big stairs to the south of P.za Venezia). Lesson: view-finding, thumbnail sketches.

Assignment 2: Two pages of thumb nail sketches.

3. Sept 15^th. Meet at Santa Sabina on the Aventino. (From school walk to the other side of the river at Tiber Island, then continue south past S. Maria in Cosmedin; after the main street leading to the Circo Massimo turn left up a little pathway called the Clivio di Rocca Savella leading from the river to the Aventine hill. Past the famous orange grove, you will find the big parking lot of S. Sabina. Wait there.) No bare shoulders or shorts in this or other churches. Lesson devoted to solving problems of perspective.

Assignment 3: Five sketches of perspectives (three one-point perspective and two two-vanishing point perspectives).

4. Sept 22^nd Orto Botanico; meet at Guarini entry, and we walk from there. Entry fee 4 euros. "Scribble drawings"; observation of nature. Contrasting description against suggestion.

Assignment 4: 8 Fast sketches from nature.

5. Sept 29^th. Meet outside the Guarini entrance, and we walk from there to Tiber Island. Problems in cityscape, landscape, water, atmospheric perspective.

Assignment 5: Slower drawing from nature paying attention to atmospheric perspective.

6. Oct 6^th. Meet at Guarini entry; we’ll go up the Gianicolo to the Fountain of the Acqua Paola to draw city views. Also in the Piazzale Garibaldi park. Drawing views of the city.

Assignment 6: Two views of Rome.

7. Oct 13^th. Meet at the beginning of the Castel Sant’Angelo bridge. We will be starting off by doing blind drawings.

Assignment 7: Fast drawings of everyday life in Rome.

8. Oct 20^th. Meet at Largo dei Fiorentini Art Studio for a group critique. PPTs on “Notes, Drawings and Sketches” (examples of other artists way of using a sketchbook) and on “Notes on Light and Shadow”.

Assignment 8: Four drawings from art or architecture with light and shadows, possibly with high contrast of light and dark (even a still life with a spotlight on it).

9. Oct 27^th. Meet by the fountain of the Triton in Piazza Barberini. We will be looking at the Baroque by seeing the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa by Bernini and the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane by Borromini and paying greater attention to light and shadow. Drawing greater complexity.

Assignment 9: Three slower drawings that include more information.

10. November 3^rd Meet by the central fountain in Piazza Navona We will be drawing there and from the fountain of the Turtles in Piazza Mattei. A series of figure drawing exercises with particular attention to the negative spaces in between the solid forms.

Assignment 10: Three drawing with particular attention to negative spaces.

11. Nov 10^th Meet at Piazza del Campidoglio, we will be drawing within the Capitoline Museum, looking at the painting section of the museum. The best solution is to have previously bought a 5 Euro MIC Card that allows free entrance to all Communal Museums.

Assignment 11: Three drawing from paintings.

12. Nov 17^th. Meet at Trajan's Market on Via Quattro Novembre 94, past P.za Venezia,and Trajan's Column, and up the steps. Drawing lesson on clarifying point of view: looking up and looking down and at larger spaces. Free entrance with MIC Card.

Assignment 13: Large spaces such as big piazzas, parks, etc.

13. Nov 24^th. Meet at Piazza del Campidoglio, we will be drawing within the Capitoline Museum looking at statues and reliefs from antiquity. Free entry with MIC Card.

Assignment 13: Three drawings from Roman antiquity or art from the past..

14. December 1^st. We will be meeting at JCU Art Studio, Largo dei Fiorentini, 1. End of semester final group critique. Appointments made for individual meetings that take the place of a final exam.

15. Dec 8^th ? Individual one-on-one final critiques.