Experimental Drawing and Mark Making - Short Course at NTU

About

Nottingham Trent University
10 - 17 October 2020, Saturdays 10 am - 4 pm
£195

This course is encouraging and gently challenging. It's aimed at those interested in drawing and mark-making using different tools and materials.

It'll encourage participation, experimentation and reflection, whilst exploring the fundamentals of energy, the organic self, the sensory self and the expression of self. Mark-making can be the result of an action or a gesture. Marks can use or remove material. They can remain on the surface or penetrate below.

As children, making marks is natural, and drawing can be seen as crucial to their development - it could be said children draw before speech is developed. However, in a world that is becoming synthetic, virtual and reliant on technology there's less opportunity to make marks - even your signature is being used less.

On this course, you will:

- follow a methodical approach that aims to create freedom in your drawing
- look at the history of mark making, from tribal crafts to contemporary design
- complete exercises that experiment with tools and materials
- explore mark-making using all your senses
- record mark-making through movement, from the miniscule to the full body stretch
- create marks using rhythm, repetition and small changes
- engage with intention, intuition, instinct and memory
- turn simple marks into the beginnings of a drawing.

The course is for beginners and the experienced.

You might be an artist or designer looking for inspiration or you might be completely new to drawing.

You might want to get back to basics, or looking for the next steps in your work.

What will you gain?

By the end of the course, you will have completed a range of simple exercises to help release your body so that you can continue to make marks unhindered.

You will also have a sketchbook of drawing and ideas to continue working on.

Level: Open to all

Entry requirement: Beginners as well as those with some drawing experience are welcome.

Tutor profile: Jane Lavender has over 30 years' experience working mainly in a range of art and design disciplines, ranging from site-specific design projects, textiles, lighting and more.

She completed her MA in Contemporary Craft Practice at Nottingham Trent University in 2014, which explored the energy of making and the signature of the body.

Jane's interests lie in artistic pursuits however simple, and their relationship to well-being and how we connect with others and our environments.