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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "AS 110-2"
COURSE NAME: "Drawing - Rome Sketchbook"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Spring 2026
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Lorenzo Modica
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: T9:00 AM 11:45 AM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES:
OFFICE HOURS: [email protected]
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course makes use of the unparalleled resource that is the city of Rome itself; each class meets at a different site around the city. Students work in sketchbook form, creating over the course of the term a diary of visual encounters. Instruction, apart from brief discussions of the sites themselves, focuses on efficient visual note taking: the quick description of form, awareness of light and the development of volume in space. With practice and growing experience, students become capable of producing drawings governed by conscious intention.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
Most classes meet at different sites of historical and visual interest around Rome. Students make drawings from observation in their sketchbooks both in and out of class, thus creating a record of their experiences and progressively learning to see and practice, through a series of progressively complex briefs, different elements of drawing. 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: thumbnail sketches planning and general composition, framing, the cultivation of line, marks and expressive qualities of textures, 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 life drawing, organisation of the page, and so on.

Additional information:
1. The course involves working from direct observation. Working from photographs is not permitted.
2. The course may include visits involving an entry fee.  These visits are held to a minimum and should not cost you more than a total of 25 euros over the semester.
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 and development.
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 footware, no bare shoulders in churches, hats and sunscreen, warm clothing when the weather turns cold. Decorous behaviour in public spaces.
8. No earbuds allowed during class time, as they diminish concentration and impede communication.


Materials (around 40 to 50 €):
Students buy their own art supplies. You need a bound (not spiral or glued) notebook not less than 24 x 34 cm. The drawing instruments includes, but are not limited to, a variety of pencils, soft, dark graphite, charcoal, ink, pens. You need erasers and a pencil sharpener. I don’t recommend your using soft charcoal or pastel, as the image quickly degrades in the sketchbook, even when you use fixative.

Art supply stores: Poggi (two locations, one in Trastevere on Via Merry del Val, just off Viale Trastevere, and the other on Via Pie’ di Marmo, near the Pantheon), also Vertecchi, a chain with many branches, including one near Piazza di Spagna. Drawing supplies are also commonly found in stationary stores (cartolerie).
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
This course makes use of the unparalleled resource that is the city of Rome itself; each class meets at a different site around the city. Students work in sketchbook form, creating over the course of the term a diary of visual encounters. Instruction, apart from brief discussions of the sites themselves, focuses on efficient visual note taking: the quick description of form, awareness of light and the development of volume in space. With practice and growing experience, students become capable of producing drawings governed by conscious intention.
TEXTBOOK:
NONE
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
Final Crit 50%
Midterm Crit 30%
Research Assignment 20%
   

-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 is required.

Three unjustified absences will count as a subtraction of one grade (ten percentage points).
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

1 Introduction to course. Meet at JCU Art Studio, Largo dei Fiorentini. Variety of Line, introduction the idea of a sketchbook.

2 Meet at the Campidoglio (the piazza of the Capitoline Hill, up the big stairs to the south of P.za Venezia.) Entry fee if bad weather. View-finding, thumbnail sketches, framing and composition.

3 Meet at Terme di Caracalla (ticket 8 euros + 2 euros booking). Drawing negative and positive primary volumes

4 Meet at Santa Sabina on the Aventino. (From school walk to the other side of the river at Tiber Island, then continue south past Sta. 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 Sta. Sabina. Wait there.) No bare shoulders or shorts in this or other churches. Devoted to solving problems of perspective.

5 Meet at Ponte Sant’Angelo, under the Castel Sant'Angelo. Drawing brief focuses on speed and gesture.

6 Meet at Piazza della Rotonda, to visit the Pantheon. Drawing light and architecture.

7 Midterm-crit. Introduction to a critical approach. Discussion of the work in groups.

8 Meet at the Campidoglio (the piazza of the Capitoline Hill, up the big stairs to the south of P.za Venezia.) Entry fee. Visit to the Musei Capitolini Palazzo Nuovo. Drawing the figure. Classical models. Necessary to have the MIC card (5 euros)

9 Orto Botanico; meet at Guarini entry, and we walk from there. Entry fee 4 euros. “Scribble drawings"; observation of nature.

10 Meet at Guarini entry, and we walk from there to Tiber Island. Problems in cityscape, landscape, riverscape, water, atmosphere. 

11 Meet at Guarini entry; we’ll go up the Gianicolo to Bramante’s Tempietto at S. Pietro in Montorio. Drawing architecture, round forms in perspective, also views over the city.

12 Meet at Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza, on Corso del Rinascimento, one block east of P.za Navona. Drawing Baroque architecture.

13 Meet at JCU Art Studio - Debrief and discussion on the different approaches and possibilities of the sketchbook. Scaling techniques.