This course will develop students’ technical and compositional skills by using a wide range of drawing and painting media such as graphite, colored pencil, charcoal, India ink, chalk pastel, oil pastel, marker, watercolor, tempera, and acrylic. The emphasis of the class will be both drawing from observation and composition studies, as well as developing their technical painting skills. Students will explore a variety of traditional and non-traditional subject matter such as still life, landscape, portraits, including personal ideas, taste and styles. Students will develop skills to creatively solve design problems while communicating personal expressions in each artwork they create. Students will continue to develop their compositional understanding by applying the Elements and Principles of Design to their sketches, drawings and final paintings. A variety of artists will be studied as students discover how they are relevant in art history and to the individual student’s work.