Classes

For years I was a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the Hague, the Netherlands where I also received my education.

Learning with

Jacobina

Drawing Class

Level 1

Watch this video, password: jacobina

Course Description

1) Contour drawing/line
Learning to draw something by letting your eyes really connect with the subject and allowing your hand to follow instructions without looking at your paper. This powerful exercise will enable you to eliminate your belief system about your perception of art.

2) Mirror Image
Drawing something that has an ambiguous feeling to it so that your mind gets confused is at the center of this exercise. It is not the image in your mind that you need to be able to draw but what your eyes and your hands tell you. When the mind already has a preconceived idea of how things should look the result will be disappointing.

3) Copying/change dimensions
Copying something complicated creates trust in your abilities to see accurately and re-create a recognizable picture on paper. You will be surprised at how good you actually are at drawing.

4) Systematic work / draw a hand
When you systematically follow the steps in this course you will have no problem with finding a way to transform an image from three dimensional reality to your two dimensional piece of paper. After having taken all the previous steps you are now ready to accurately draw your own hand.

5) Copy reality / draw an object
After having taken all the previous steps you are now ready to draw an object that you are holding in your hand. This new skill might surprise you and it also might feel like a little trick that is not quite real. Please remember, with the intellectual knowledge you now have, you can basically draw anything you want. Practice will do the rest.

6) Creating an illusion
First we have flattened a three dimensional image and made it into a two dimensional outline on paper, now we are creating a third dimensional illusion by hatching and crosshatching. This is a tediously of adding tones and values to a drawing going from black to white and all the grey tones in between. Mastering this will create value to your drawing.

Price $297.

Drawing Class

Level 2

Introduction

Some people like to draw flowers, some people are crazy about drawing other people. There are artists who completely focus on drawing buildings, cityscapes or boats. To draw something really good takes prolonged focus and various ways to view your subject matter. The more you hone into what you like, the more you will discover. Whatever you choose, once you get in the habit of seeing, you will never look at mundane things the same again. You actually will develop mindfulness and scan the world with a heightened sensitivity.

Course Description

1) The general idea
We touched on the principle of negative space, Where there is an inside there is an outside. The line is like a border between two shapes. There are five basic skills of drawing.
1. Edges
2. Spaces
3. Relationships
4. Lights and shadows
5. The Gestalt (The whole together)

2) The chair
The drawing of a mundane object like a chair seems too easy. You already know what the chair looks like, so why bother? But let’s dive deeper into this subject because these are lessons in perspective. Drawing a chair is as much about composition as it is about negative spaces

3) A corner in your house/relationships
Drawing furniture next to a door or a hallway might look like a daunting task but you are ready for it. We use measuring tools that have been used for centuries by many artists to get the right proportions.

4) Draw a person/relationships
By a lack of live models, this portion of the class is theoretical and we will use line templates and measuring tools to give you an idea of how to structure the features and hair without getting into much detail too fast.

5) Light and shadows
Always know where the light is coming from. When there is direct sunlight you might want to stop within an hour, because the subject has changed dramatically. Also include background and other interference.

6) Self portrait
Using a large mirror and one spot light draw your own face using everything you have learned thus far. Start with a light outline and measure the spaces between eyes and eye and ear.

Price $297.

Drawing Class

Level 3

Introduction

In this course I will focus on landscape, since this has still a broad spectrum of possibilities. Even as broad as this is, you can have preferences of what you like most, but let’s discover first what is out there. In the former courses I told you more or less that the object, or the subject of your drawing was not of much importance rather then the technique in which you were going to train your drawing skill. Everything was good. A rotten apple, a can opener or a ball of garlic. The light hits all these objects the same way, there is shade and a dark side, no matter how mundane your subject is. However, the more you find your way, the more important it becomes to draw what you love. The more you love what you draw, the more you are going to discover. Always use the basic drawing skills when you start.

Course Description

1) Look at the world from a window
Go sit somewhere in your house on a comfortable chair and draw the window, but also whatever is out there.Use the confined shape of your window to find the negative shapes. If you don’t like what you see, or it is too complicated, just move to another window. Just like with drawing the interior, measure various distances, close by or far away.

2) Thumbnails
Always use the basic drawing skills when you start. Know where the light is coming from. Squint to see big blotches of grey matter and know which number it is on the grey scale. Always find a basic unit and scan the horizon for negative shapes. Find the abstract unknown shapes instead of the things that are already named. Make ten small rectangles and walk around the block of your house with the viewfinder. For outside drawing you need a folding chair without arm rests and a sketch book so that the paper will not blow away. The idea is to do it fast.

3) Composition
In a composition we try to find the balance between dark and light, near and far and a focal point that leads the eye to something. Perspective is a matter of choosing the right angle and finding the correct negative shape. Landscapes often have paths, winding paths and something close-up. When you put something recognizable in the foreground you add a scale to the entire image. That in turn gives tremendous depth. Make three small drawings of the same subject and angle with variations in negative shapes.

4) Draw a tree
Focus on a tree you like and study its trunk, its leaves and branches separately. Not knowing how to draw tree very often is because we think we know what the tree looks like, but in all honesty, trees are complicated by lack of straight lines. It is more important than anywhere else that you focus on negative shapes and build the tree from relationships from the basic unit. Go close, go far away. Study.

5) Draw a tree next to a house
Block in the tree, get the proportions of both in order, find a path, a driveway with something in the foreground. It could be a leaf, a bicycle laying on the sidewalk, or a person.

6) Make a drawing
Pick an exclusive view of some architecture and some nature in the neighborhood from the thumbnail sketches you have already made, or make new ones. Use the hatching and crosshatching to give value to your drawing.

Price $297.

Drawing Class

Color Matters

Introduction

There’s a lot to like about drawing with colored pencils. They’re utterly convenient. A handful of colored pencils and a pad of paper are all you really need to start creating. Prep time and cleanup are practically non-issues, the materials are light and portable, and you don’t need messy or toxic solvents. At the same time, colored pencil drawing lends itself to highly refined and exquisite works of art that rival those created with any other medium.

Colored pencils are relatively inexpensive, and the palette is extensive. The color is pure, clean and bright. The medium is permanent, and colored pencil drawings do not require elaborate care or storage.

Anyone who has started drawing as children with Crayola colored pencils, probably has a fondness for the control and detail they have when using colored pencils to draw. Still, many people are surprised to find that drawing with colored pencils has become a fine art with the exquisite execution to rival painting and sculpture. Colored pencil drawings focus on similar shade and light considerations that dominate watercolor, while also using the shading a blending techniques of dry media.

Much of the popularity of colored pencils has to do with their portability. As a dry medium, they are easy to pack in a daily bag, or a suitcase for longer trips, without worrying about leakage, damage, and spoilage.

This medium is ideal for people who travel extensively and do not have long stretches of uninterrupted time. I am offering you a special virtual course of making drawings with colored pencils for six weeks. The subject matter are vegetables on a small piece of cloth like a dishtowel or napkin. Every week we will look at the results, critique and celebrate.(No more than six people in a class)

Price $297.

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