Courses
This course presents students with technical, historical and cultural understanding of the fiber medium. Students learn the basics of textile processes, including dyeing, felting, knitting, weaving, sewing, and lacemaking. Technical demonstrations and samples will be covered in class while students are encouraged to expand upon covered material through long-term personal projects. Technical demonstrations will be supported with slide lectures demonstrating the historical context of fiber processes and their contemporary applications. Attendance in 1st class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
This introductory painting class is an exploration of the ways watercolor and designer gouache are used together to paint organic materials representationally. We’ll study the difference between botanical painting and illustration and trace how women specifically have shaped this genre of art through history. Students will learn techniques from both observation and invention and artwork will be assessed in weekly group critiques. Course includes demonstrations, short readings and a research paper about a botanical artist.
Area: Humanities
This course will explore creative techniques for making visually compelling photographs using smartphone technology. Through photography assignments, demonstrations, and field trips, we will experiment with many photography apps which can be used for manual camera exposure, image adjustments, digital collaging, and other visual effects. We will use Fuji and Canon smartphone printers to make inkjet and polaroid prints of our phone images and use various social media platforms to submit course projects. We will also discuss the ethical responsibilities of using smartphones in public spaces as well as how the history of technology has shaped our understanding of art, culture, and everyday life. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
This three-credit studio course is an introduction to the tools, techniques, and concepts of basic drawing. Studio projects will focus on building strong observation and rendering skills while experimenting with traditional and contemporary practices in drawing. The course will provide insight into understanding a “drawing” as a visual perception and as a concept. Some drawing projects will take place outside of the classroom exploring hidden gems around Baltimore including the Graffiti Alley, Walters Art Museum, John Hopkins Archeological Museum, Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore Museum of Art and more. No previous experience is required for this course. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
This course is designed as an introduction to the tools, techniques and concepts of basic painting for the serious student. Studio assignments focus on developing strong observation and rendering skills focusing on issues of light, color and composition while experimenting with traditional and contemporary practices in painting. Lectures and a museum trip give students an art historical context in which to place their own discoveries as beginning painters. Oil paint will be used. No previous experience is necessary. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
In this course, students will explore creative techniques for making visually compelling photographs using their smartphone camera. Through photography assignments, demonstrations, and virtual collaborations, we will experiment with many photography apps which can be used for manual camera exposure, image adjustments, digital collaging, and other visual effects. We will learn about the history of social media and use some of the current platforms to submit our course projects. We will also discuss the ethical responsibilities of using smartphones in public spaces as well as how the history of technology has shaped our understanding of art, culture, and everyday life.
Area: Humanities
In this course, students will learn to design, draw, and see like an architect. A series of progressive design exercises will teach the practical capacities and habits of mind that lead not merely to competence but success and advancement in the field. We will look at what architecture has been, discuss what it is becoming, and explore both formal and narrative methodologies for design. The class will use the built environment of the city - and the Homewood campus - as a classroom and a site for interpretive drawing and creative design work. Essential in the architect's education is the sketchbook, which functions not merely as a place to 'store' what has been witnessed, but a place to interpret and explore implications of design in the world, whether close to home or traveling in exotic locales.
Area: Humanities
This course concentrates on the fundamentals of Lightroom and Photoshop for photographic post-processing and creative image-making techniques. Students will gain a proficient workflow for image development using such tools as adjustments, gradients, actions, masking, and other post-production methods. Course projects will include digital collaging and hand coloring techniques, and will pull inspiration from various artistic movements, field trips to local museums, and exploring the surrounding Station North neighborhood. Students will also learn inkjet printing as a mode for bringing their digitally crafted images to life. Students will receive instruction on DSLR cameras, which are available on semester loan. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
This studio art course will introduce students to the basic techniques and applications of fine art photography using digital technology. Emphasis will be placed on DSLR camera functions, image manipulation with Adobe Creative Cloud, and digital inkjet printing. Throughout the semester, students will engage in classroom critiques and discussions to aid their dialogue on art and their understanding of photographic imagery. In this course, creative exploration will be fostered through the visual language of photography. DSLR film cameras are available on semester loan. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
The digital design course explores two-dimensional graphics as visual communication. Students will be introduced to basic design principles and elements, learn graphics tools used in the designindustry, and develop and apply creative strategies to solve design problems in their everyday lives. This unique course will address the students’ direct needs through real-life design problems they face. Students will be asked to bring design challenges and tackle the issue both independently and collaboratively. Design challenges may include building print and web visual presentations, producing information brochure and posters, developing off and online portfolios, creating a resume to business cards. The course will offer both analog and digital design processes, graphics software tutorials and techniques, and basic introduction to design history, vocabulary and concepts. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
Watercolor is simultaneously the most accessible of all painting media and the most misunderstood. This course provides experience and instruction in observational and expressive watercolor techniques, materials, concepts, and vocabulary. Topics to be reviewed include line, perspective, value, texture, composition, color, and pictorial space. There will be an introduction to contemporary practices in watercolor, as well as experimental and abstract exercises, collage, and conceptual work.
This challenging yet creatively playful course presents abstract, perceptual and conceptual concepts in art to understand line, one of the elements of art, from multiple perspectives, materials and practices. Be prepared to collaborate and experiment! Through an intense exploration of line, students will create artworks exploring line as marks on a flat surface (drawing), lines that communicate data (design), lines that build form (sculpture) and lines that embody movement (performance and video). Possible assignments will include projects with drawing, printmaking, fiber, cell phone video, installation, unconventional or recycled materials and collaboration. • This is not a drawing class but a multimedia course on one of the elements of art.Instructor approval and attendance at first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
This course is an overview of hand-drawn and digital methods for silk screen printing. Through demonstrations and self-guided projects, students will develop their compositional skills, while creating images based on narrative, self-reflection and intercultural connectivity. Technical skill development such as film/screen preparation, image registration, and techniques for printing on paper and other materials will be introduced. The history of the medium and an overview of how analog and digital processes can create and inform a printed image will be discussed. The course will culminate with students producing an edition of prints. No prior experience is needed. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
In this course students learn to create marks, textures and imagery using a variety of printmaking techniques. Students create relief and intaglio printing matrices and practice printing by hand and with a press to reproduce their images. The class culminates with explorations of layered printing, monoprinting, and mixed media approaches to create unique 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional works. Attendance in first class is mandatory. No prior experience is needed.
Area: Humanities
This course introduces the tools, techniques, and technologies of design representation in a project-based setting. Students will build drawing skills, learn the principles of perspective, and explore theories and applications of design media and emerging digital technologies. Designing projects at various scales from the hand-held object to the public realm, we will develop creative problem solving, design thinking, and iterative design methodologies, leaving the course with the ability to apply the foundations of design to any discipline. Special note: This spring our course will be geared toward collaborative and site-based practices. Class meetings will begin with remote instruction and collaboration, and expand to include site visits as the season progresses. This course will satisfy the foundation drawing class for the art minor.
Area: Humanities
This is an intermediate drawing class that builds on the concepts and skills in Studio Drawing 1. Students will explore contemporary and conceptual approaches to drawing while further developing their skills in various graphic mediums. Risk taking and experimentation will be encouraged while learning about comtemporary practices in the medium. The course will conclude with students creating an individual series of drawings of their choice.
Prerequisite(s): AS.371.131 OR AS.371.186
Area: Humanities
What makes an image truthful?Students will create drawings utilizing both traditional and unconventional processes through the lens of historical and political illustrations, propaganda graphics and misinformation, and current events. The course is anchored in, but not limited to, the art practices of Kara Walker's slavery narrative, George Grosz's political caricatures of First War Germany, historical war posters, Hugo Crosthwaite's depiction of the US/MX border to Coronavirus "beauty shot." Projects may include revising a historical artwork, manipulating propaganda graphics of the past and the present, redrawing a visual data, and designing a personal narrative drawing project. Field trips, technical demos, discussions, and lectures will provide context and support for students to become image-makers of their own narrative and history. Attendance in first class is mandatory. Recommended but not required: AS.371.131
Area: Humanities
In this studio art class students will create three artist books taught by three different CVA faculty. The first four weeks will investigate the book as a technological and cultural artifact, exploring historically what the book is and does, and as a cognitive aid and engine for ideation. Students will create a blank book that they use for their creative explorations.The second section will use printmaking techniques such as paper lithography, xerox transfers, and relief printmaking combined with quick and ephemeral folding structures in an effort to understand both printmaking and bookmaking’s rich history in dissemination of ideas, democracy, and social change. This section will participate in a class zine exchange. The third section of the course will explore embroidery and weaving to navigate language and mark making. Students will explore the relationship between poetry, storytelling, and fiber processes to create a narrative textile. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
In this photography course, we will learn about photographic lighting techniques used by photographers in both commercial and fine art photography. We will explore how design, composition, location, and use of color play integral roles in photographic images. Projects in this course will explore the boundaries of both representation and abstraction, by working with such themes as portraiture, still life, product, environmental, and location photography. We will gain technical proficiency with studio lighting equipment, including strobe lights, LED lights, clamp lights, on-camera flash, light stands, backdrops, color gels, and other lighting accessories. DSLR cameras are available on loan for the semester. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
In this photography course, we will learn how to use traditional 35mm film cameras for photographing on both color and black and white film stocks. We will outsource our film to a local professional photo lab to develop our film and provide us with high-resolution digital scans. Demonstrations in Lightroom and Photoshop will provide us with the technical skills to edit and adjust our film scans to make beautifully crafted digital inkjet prints. Various paper brands and surfaces will be explored to show how substrate choices emphasize the textural qualities and tonal range of film. We will study a wide range of topics in photography, such as identity, family, environmentalism, culture, politics, and history, as well as other genres and themes in art. We will also learn about the invention of photography and how the technical evolution of the film camera helped in advancing the medium into the digital realm. Attendance in first class is mandatory.Please note, that this is not a darkroom course, therefore, there will be no hand development of film or traditional darkroom printing. 35MM film cameras are available on semester loan.
Area: Humanities
In this photography course, we will combine historic and contemporary photographic processes as a means of creative investigation. We will have an in-depth look at such processes as Cyanotypes, Lumen Printing, Anthotypes, Photocollage, Digital Negatives, and how to create Camera Obscura. We will explore an array of substrate choices, such as darkroom papers, watercolor papers, newsprint, fabric, and other unconventional surfaces. We will use these processes and substrates to make contact prints and impressions of various types of materials, ranging from plants, flowers, food, liquids, everyday objects, and previously made photographs. Emphasis will be placed on the ephemeral nature of photography and the ways in which the medium can be pushed beyond its limitations. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
The fabric of the universe, a wrinkle in time and space: our physical universe is frequently described through fiber metaphors. Fiber processes are algorithmic. They grow exponentially, they fold, they tear, they wrinkle. These processes function as a pliable plane that can be bent, stretched, and turned inside out. This course offers students an opportunity to explore fiber processes through this sculptural lens. Topics include knitting, crochet, basketry, and lace as they come together to form sculptural armatures and objects. Together we will explore the physical properties of fiber and textiles, how they take up space and function in our world. Attendance in first class is mandatory. Recommended but not required: AS.371.126 Fiber Art and the String Revolution.
Area: Humanities
Students will learn approaches to taking still life photographs and expressing their relationships to the objects surrounding their daily lives. Still life will be defined as the objects we purchase, own, consume, observe and arrange. Investigations into the still life will be focused on table top, food, found objects, and product photography.Technical explorations include the exposure triangle, depth of field, basic lighting control, framing, and visual design. Class will consist of live-demonstrations, independent studio work, discussions, and photography critiques. Students will complete a portfolio of printed images by the end of the class. A digital camera with manual control, tripod, Lightroom, and Adobe Photoshop will be supplied for this course. Students will be approved into the course after enrollment in SIS. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
In this course students will gain insight into the art of portraiture with projects such as the self-portrait, collaborative portraiture, portrait of a place, and image and text. In representing people, we'll explore developing an understanding of people in relation to power and representation, the body, environments and society. Lectures on the history of the portrait and its practitioners, new directions in portraiture as well as empathy and the gaze will inspire students to bring greater depth to their image making. Camera experience is a plus but not a requirement. Cameras will be provided for the semester. First class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
Students who have mastered basic painting skills undertake sustained projects, including portrait and plein air landscape work. Slide lectures and handouts deepen students' appreciation of representational traditions. Advanced techniques, materials, and compositional issues are also investigated. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Prerequisite(s): AS.371.133 or instructor's permission.
An intensive look at the traditions and techniques of portrait drawing. Students work from live models in a variety of media and study master portraits by Holbein, Rembrandt, Ingres, Degas, etc. Trips to the Baltimore Museum of Art Print & Drawing Room and JHU Archaeological Museum will enhance knowledge and appreciation of the history and traditions of portraiture. Recommended Course Background: AS.371.131 or permission required. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
This studio art course will introduce students to conceptual techniques and applications of digital photography. In this course, we will foster creative exploration and uses of technology through advanced digital capture, image construction and manipulation, substrate choices, and methods of digital output. We will have an in-depth look at historic and contemporary photography as it relates to culture, current trends, and classroom assignments. Students will also engage in conversation and classroom critique throughout the semester to aid their dialogue and understanding of contemporary art. Attendance in first class is mandatory. Completion of AS.371.152 is suggested.
Area: Humanities
An intermediate drawing course focusing on drawing the human form and studying anatomy for artists. Working from live models, students will draw the clothed and nude figure, portrait drawing, gesture drawing and anatomy tracings of the skeleton and muscles. Students will use drawing skills learned in Drawing I to explore the human form using wet and dry material, collage and color. The class will study the figure drawings and paintings from Renaissance to contemporary artists. Attendance in 1st class is mandatory.
Prerequisite(s): AS.371.131 or AS.371.187 or permission of Instructor.
Area: Humanities
In this course, students will research, investigate, and build art utilizing traditional and non-traditional processes and materials. Students will have the opportunity to expand their knowledge of basic art building materials, including but not limited to found objects, photographs, basic electronics, and consumables. Projects may include assemblages, light 3-D structures, collages, wearables, and hard and soft sculptures. Exploration of materiality as form and content through the lens of contemporary art practices and theory will serve as a reference and a guide for students. Students are encouraged to imagine all possibilities for a structure. Students will provide their own materials for this class. One studio art course is recommended. Attendance in the first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
This course will provide students with the basic skills needed to design and fabricate their own jewelry and/or small sculpture. Offered at the Baltimore Jewelry Center, a metal + jewelry makerspace in Baltimore City, this course will cover piercing, filing, finishing, fabricating, soldering, forming, basic stone setting, and basic embellishment techniques as well as simple clasps. Designed for beginning sculpture, metals, or jewelry students, the projects may include a pierced pendant or brooch, a hollow constructed ring, a linked bracelet or necklace with clasp, and a bezel-set pendant or brooch. Students will become familiar with the safety, use, and maintenance of studio equipment and hand tools. No prior experience is required for this class. Attendance in the first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
In this upper level course, students will work on a semester-long project. They will develop their ideas within a seminar style format that allows for conversation and debate and provides a forum for the evolution their work. Students will learn advanced techniques in Photoshop, Nik software and Lightroom to enhance content and develop a personal style. Through a combination of critique, lecture, and lab, students will complete a portfolio of ten printed images that work together in a series. Approval for this course will be considered after enrollment on SIS. Attendance in 1st class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
In this course, we will explore different genres and approaches to documentary photography and the questions inherent to this mode of image-making. We will explore such themes as representation, storytelling, research, records and archives, journalism, community engagement, and personal perspective. Contemporary issues within our culture and the local Baltimore community will provide inspiration for the work made in this course. Students will produce a final documentary project on a subject of their choice as the culmination of their semester’s work. DSLR cameras are available on loan for the semester. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Area: Humanities
In this studio course, students will create artwork based on their individual research and concerns in art. Through artist presentations, readings, discussions and museum and gallery visit, the students will advance their skills and understanding of contemporary art and theory. This class is open to studio and digital photography students who want to engage with other serious art students and advance their art practice and research. Preferred courses: 2 Studio or Digital classes. The student will provide their own materials. Attendance in first class is mandatory.
Prerequisite(s): AS.371.131 OR AS.371.133 OR AS.371.152 OR AS.371.186
Area: Humanities
Students propose an independent body of work to be created over the course of the semester for one or two credits. Proposals must be sent to the instructor prior to approval for the course.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
Students propose an independent body of work to be created over the course of the semester for one or two credits. Proposals must be sent to the instructor prior to approval for the course.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.