All students will begin the course working in pencil on copies of Charles Bargue's original lithograph images. Students will then move on to a series of cast drawings in charcoal, followed by exercises in charcoal and white chalk, with a specific emphasis in using the sight-sized method. Eventually initial training is completed with grisaille paintings of casts and simple monochromatic still lifes. Students will be advised to apply themselves to the method of instruction. This is a concise course intended to enlighten students to an extremely efficient, time honoured method, it is not intended to supplement other methods, rather, it is an extremely advantageous concept which can be utilised in more complex and conceptual painting projects.

Applying Learning for Future Work

This method of working equips the artist with a fast and economical way of drawing from nature. In the initial stages attention is paid to the basic proportions and the contour forms. Only the most simple of the geometric shapes of the shadows are put down in the preliminary stages and plane changes are indicated with straight lines. The drawing is refined by rounding out this 'block-in' and dividing the subject into the simplest range of value shapes. The student then continues this process modelling the form from the darkest values to the lightest, until the drawing becomes more solid and three-dimensional. These same principles are applied whether working in pencil, charcoal or oils.