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Course curriculum

    1. Student Orientation Video

    2. Join your community!

    3. Materials

    4. Vocabulary

    1. Elements of Monochromatic Graphite Drawing

    1. Preparing the Supplies

    1. Value Shading

    1. Drawing the Still Life

About this course

  • $79.99
  • 8 lessons
  • 2 hours of video content

Great Value

Learn a lifelong skill for the price of a trip to the art supply store

Course overview

This course provides a structured introduction to the core principles of drawing, building a strong foundation applicable to both drawing and painting. Participants will work from direct observation using a still-life setup to develop essential skills, including line weight, gesture, light value, composition, perspective, proportion, and edge hierarchy. Through guided demonstrations and exercises, students will explore monochromatic graphite techniques, mark-making methods, and shading principles to create depth and form. Emphasis is placed on observational accuracy, material preparation, and refining technical skills to achieve a more dynamic and realistic representation in artwork.

  • Still-life observation techniques

  • Line weight and shading

  • Perspective and proportion basics

  • Composition and edge hierarchy

  • Mark-making and texture

  • Creating depth and realism

Instructor

Melanie Berardicelli

Instructor

Melanie Berardicelli is a SURP and CE Painting Professor at the New York Academy of Art. She has been an educator of the fine arts since 2014, teaching painting and drawing, life drawing, sculpture, and art history classes at Ivy League School in Smithtown and USDAN Center for the Fine and Performing Arts. Melanie received a Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the New York Academy of Art in May 2021 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing at SUNY New Paltz in 2017. Melanie’s artwork explores the spark felt when entering the sacred space of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the history of the Roman Martyr Catacomb Saints; her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows throughout New York State, including The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Sotheby’s, Cryptic Gallery, Greenpoint Gallery, Upstream Gallery, The Huntington Arts Council, and The New York Academy of Art. Currently, Melanie assists artist Audrey Flack in her New York and East Hampton studio locations, creating the underpaintings and sculptures for Flack’s current Post-Pop Baroque series. Melanie is also children’s book illustrator. Her work for Augie Goes to the Library- a 48-page commemoration to the New Paltz community and the titular Border Collie- was published in 2016.

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