New York Academy of Art

In Animal Drawing I, students will learn various strategies to translate what they see onto paper accurately and explore the subtlety and depth of charcoal and graphite. Through demonstrations, lectures, and individualized feedback, Elody will cover gestural techniques exploring motion, posture, and proportion, the skeletal structures of vertebrate animals, and refined drawing methods to capture the surface textures found in the animal kingdom. Elody will teach additive and subtractive drawing techniques, and working quickly versus building up a longer drawing up over time. Additionally, students will learn about drawing from life versus photographic references, methods of translating what you see onto a two-dimensional surface, and how to capture facial expressions in an animal portrait. For an optional final project, we will explore strategies for integrating animals into invented scenes with other animals, humans, or landscapes using light to unify the composition. Throughout the class we will look historical art depicting animals from ancient, medieval and renaissance periods.