Description

Beginning Drawingw/Mamie DuffA seven (7) session class

Beginning Drawing
Want to draw things that look “real”? Me too! I have always loved the magic of putting pencil to paper, making marks, and creating an image that nearly jumps off the page.
Of course, it isn’t really magic. It’s accuracy. Creating accurate drawings is a skill set that can be learned, step by step, like any other skill.
In this class, we’ll begin at the beginning. We’ll get familiar and comfortable with a range of pencils and erasers. We’ll do simple exercises to start sharpening your ability to see critically. You’ll learn how to translate what you see to lines on the page. You’ll look for shapes, angles, and distances.
Then we’ll look at what helps define an object in space, and how to use shading to create all the effects you want, from shiny metal to soft fur, from see-through glass to a human hand.
By the end of six weeks, you’ll be able to produce a good likeness of a simple object. It may seem like magic, but you will now know exactly how you did it, and be able to do it again.


Materials list:
Drawing pencils: HB, 2B, 4B, 6B. Kneaded eraser, white eraser, brush (for flicking off eraser dust)A stomp (paper tube with a pointed end, for smudging)Drawing paper, at least 9x12 inches, smooth surfaceDrawing board large enough for your paperClamps or tape to hold paper to surface (unless the surface already has a clamp built in)Gray scale (This is an inexpensive little flat tool available from Dick Blick or Jerry’s Artarama—put it in the Search function)
About Mamie Duff
From the age of about 2, my passion has been to make images that look real. I have been fascinated by reproducing the shiny coats of horses, the weight of a juicy apple, or the contours of a human model for as long as I can remember. For me, everything—whether a person, dog, landscape or apple—is a portrait of a particular moment.
That love of realism was not fashionable when I was first learning to use the tools of art; the focus was on abstraction of various sorts. It wasn’t until I was in my 40s that I found the classical, step-by-step training I had always wanted. Over 3 years I progressed from simple 10-minute line drawings to multi-week finished renderings of human faces and bodies. The graphite drawing of a man in Renaissance attire shown below won second place in the juried New Hope Art Show (after an oil painting).



In this class, I’ll share a very condensed version of that 3-year training that will give you a good foundation. You’ll make least one drawing (likely of a simple still life) that you can be proud of by the end of our time together.

Prerequisites

2025-2026 Adult Membership
or 2025-2026 Family Membership
or 2025-2026 Senior Membership
or 2025-2026 Supporting Benefactor Membership
or 2025-2026 Supporting Patron Membership
or 2025-2026 Adult Membership

Instructor

Mamie Duff