9 WEEK MINI COURSE
Learn Art Skills: Lesson 1
Introduction to the 
E-Z Draw Method

Art Knowledge: Lesson 1
There are 3 things that can make you a good artist:
1. Learn art skills, one particular skill at a time
(skills improve with practice) Listed, many art skills
2. Learn art knowledge. Develop an understanding of ideas and principles and knowledge that applies to art (example, knowledge of 3D or depth)
3. Look at the work of many artists who can inspire and instruct us with their ideas.
Terms in art lesson 1:
E-Z Drawing Method. Sketching, Studies, Composition
E-Z Drawing. Drawing freely without inhibition
Sketching, A version of an image done sometimes quite quickly, small version of final image. Thumbnail. Compositions use the entire picture frame and not just a single detail within the page.
A "Study" is a practice drawing or an experimental version of the idea you are trying to develop. In the Picasso studies below, the artist searches for a powerful expression of sorrow.
You are working with the visual element of Line, when lines close they produce shapes; these elements all occur in space.

Supplies for the art mini course:
9x12 or 11x14 sketchbook.
Heavier weight (75 lb) index or vellum paper is a good inexpensive alternative to a sketch book. 81/2 by 11 inch. A ream (500 sheet) is about $7.
water color box with 8 or more cakes of color
a soft brush, you may buy the ones with plastic handles for less than $1
soft school pencil, HB or 1
art gum eraser
water base liquid markers (broad tip)
Q-tips or small cotton balls
dry color chalk, pastels, Box of 12

Invent imaginative shapes. Try to be uninhibited. The shapes don't have to represent real things.
 

Your paradigms can inhibit creative progress.
Be ready to think in a new way.
Paradigms are how you think things are and how things have to be. How you interpret reality or the world around you. Example sky is not always blue.

Places to see the work of great artists.

Art Skills: Lesson 1
Skills using pencil and drawing paper.
You may use an ordinary school pencil. Softer lead pencils may be denoted HB or #1. The Dixon No.1
Is a quality pencil at an economic price.

Drawing the E-Z way - free and uninhibited.
1. Use free arm movements - Lock your hand and wrist so that the line is formed by the whole arm movement. (technique is  demonstrated on the drawing warm up page.)
2. Draw with very light pressure, until you have the features that you want; then you may darken using heavier lines. Retrace the same outline for practice to build coordination skills.
3. Be tentative ignore mistakes allow the forms to evolve. No erasing is necessary if you start lightly.

ACTIVITIES:
Practice drawing with a free arm motion
and light pressure. Your instincts are probably to do
the opposite, but practice repeating various free motions of your pencil or pen. Repetition of the same movement will give you practice in control and accuracy. On your first page: Only ovals, overlapped of different sizes. You will get some nice designs. Work on some shapes that are large. Fill the page.

On your second page think straight line motions with your fingers and hand in a fixed position. Think point to point and keep practicing to make your line straight. It may help to make dots around the picture and aim for a dot on each stroke of your pencil.

Do pages of combinations of straight and curved. Alternate for variety; go from strait segments to curved segments and repeat as before for coordination.
Do pages of combinations of straight and curved. Alternate for variety; go from strait segments to curved segments and repeat as before for coordination.
Creative variations: Use solid color or tone within areas that are overlapped to produce a visually pleasing abstract design. Remember compositions recognize the whole picture space.

Skills require practice. The more you practice the more your skills will grow.