Contemporary Drawing Summer School

About

Nottingham Trent University
Monday 22 - Friday 26 August 2022 | 10am - 4pm, one week
Price: £395

This course celebrates drawing in all its forms, from established approaches to digital discoveries. It explores drawing and mark-making as a tool for creating ideas, allowing you to relax and draw with fluidity and confidence.

This course will introduce you to ways of expanding your drawing into experimental approaches by taking your work into a digital context and allowing you to build hybrid, mixed-media artworks. It's ideal for the beginner looking for an alternative approach to drawing, and for those with some experience who wish to get back into the studio and refresh their skills in a supportive environment.

Taking the onus away from perfecting the art of drawing, you will begin to lay down marks and lines, making drawing more enjoyable and relaxing. You'll be guided through experimental exercises to connect your hand with your eye and with the marks you are putting on paper.

As you build confidence, you'll be shown how to increase your observational skills and how to use drawing to suit your own style and creative voice. You'll learn about how creative people throughout history have used drawing in different ways to work across different mixed media. As the course progresses, you'll develop your physical drawings into the digital realm and be introduced to tools and techniques that will allow you to control your drawings in a new way, focusing on scale, details abstractions and composition. You'll then have the confidence to create artworks by reworking your digital and physical work, building truly unique pieces.

This practical course is delivered through lots of hands-on exercises, group demonstrations, talks and discussions, as well as one-to-one feedback.

During the course you will:

- increase your awareness and skills in drawing
- engage in enjoyable and challenging drawing exercises
- learn how to accept and build on happy accidents
- experiment with mixed media techniques
- understand the context of contemporary drawing through historical and contemporary approaches.

What will I gain?

By the end of the course, you'll have a body of work, a sketchbook full of ideas and a new-found love for drawing. You'll leave with a greater understanding of drawing and how it can improve your creative thinking and ideation skills. In addition to the sessions on campus, there'll also be an online after-care session with your tutor and the group to discuss any follow-on questions you might have.

Level: Open to all
Entry requirement: Beginners as well as those with experience of drawing are welcome.
Where you'll learn: You will be based in the School of Art and Design on the City Campus.

You'll find bright drawing and painting studio and workshop spaces to develop your ideas and create exciting work. You'll also have access to the library to use outside of your short course; whilst you can't reserve or take away books, you are welcome to use them as a resource for research and referencing.

Tutor Profile: Lisa Bowers is an innovative-driven tutor and future technologies researcher, with over 16 years of experience in applied arts and design academic teaching in higher education. She is currently a senior fellow and academic for the Open University.

Need accommodation?
You can book a self-catered, single room with private bathroom on our city campus, right next door to our studios and classrooms.