Presenting some of the most fundamental aspects of drawing from life through an emphasis on lecture, example, and demonstration, this class will illustrate the concepts universally applied to any curriculum offered at the Grand Central Atelier.  Strict practitioners of academic art would tell you that you need to hear the same concept multiple times in order to incorporate it into your thinking. One of the most compelling reasons to study at the GCA is the continuity of instruction across the entire curriculum. This class aims to familiarize you with our core concepts, as you will hear the same concepts again and again in any class you take, in person or online. Thus, building a solid understanding of the ideas and applicable vocabulary will help you get more out of future instruction.  Each day will consist of lecture and demo, followed by brief assignments and critique.  The breakdown of the class is as follows: Day 1 AM: “Form thinking” vs. the optical approach. How we organize our thinking to capture a three dimensional representation of an object. We will discuss shapes, gradients, structure, contours, and the tricks our eyes play on us which require a conceptual understanding, such as simultaneous contrast, thinking in terms of lighter/darker...etc. We will render conceptual spheres. Day 2 AM: An introduction to making the third dimension a two dimensional image through Bargue copies. How to construct the best “block-in” from life. How GCA thinking relies on shape thinking to inform form thinking. We will attempt small Bargue drawings. Day 3 AM: Modelling form: the most sculptural aspect of the conceptual thinking we perform at the Grand Central Atelier. We will take the two dimensional linear drawing methods from the previous class and apply “form thinking” to transform this two-dimensional image into something that “feels” three dimensional. We will model small objects in graphite from life.