Cowan, Linda

Charcoal: Students will learn to develop a portrait likeness with charcoal. I use hard, medium and soft charcoal, burnishing tools, kneaded erasures, newsprint and the reference, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards.

Color: A high-energy crammed-full-of-information session that will introduce color or refresh a student's knowledge. I have taught this in mixed-generation classes with great success. My students took their assignments home, studied and reinforced each other. Together they absorbed all the information presented. I use six acrylic colors, plus black, white and Bristol.

Design: Design incorporates the color wheel, elements and principles of design all into one class project. I use acrylics, markers, glue, construction paper and fixative.

Gouache: Opaque watercolors used for an extremely vibrant "illumination" project on colored paper with an accent of gold or silver. References are antique and oriental samples. Project involves tracing, painting and accenting the frame-able designs. Gouache supplies include color paper, gold and silver pens, liquid gold and silver accent paint.

Pencil Landscapes: Students will learn the variety of strokes to create value and texture, handling of erasures, grades of pencils, paper tooth and perspective for a landscape pencil drawing. I use a good drawing paper, 6 grades of pencils, kneaded erasures and fixatives.

Watercolor: "Light to Dark, Warm to Cool and Large to Small" themes this session on watercolor, demonstrating why this formula works so well for approaching watercolor. I use 6 colors, water, 1", 1/2" and 1/4" brushes and Bristol. Painting a simple scene will give students great tools for future watercolor projects.

Pen and Ink: Using India Ink on Bristol and just 4 sizes of nibs, the student will be introduced to an enjoyable art form that reinforces all other art skills. Emphasis is on what can be done with ink, strokes to accomplish this and examples of ink drawings for reference.

Seeing: A class which includes contour drawing, looking through a faceted "Bug's" eye, perspective, comparisons of the realism and sharpness of photography and the emergence of impressionism. Using a three-dimensional set (usually pottery) and cropping tools, students will learn perspective from viewpoint and perspective by putting three-dimensional objects in a 2-dimensional space and the use of negative space.

Hand building Pottery: Universal hand building techniques include pinch, coil and slab techniques that enlighten the student to the further possibilities of clay. The three-dimensional qualities of clay give the artists the ability to solve problems in the real 3-D world. It is a relaxing and very rewarding art form. I need 6-8 pounds of earthenware clay for each student @ .30 cents per pound. I already have the tools for large classes. I will make up a list of places in the OkC vicinity that will fire student work.

Sculpture: Using Terra cotta clay, students will learn the basic technique of beginning with a block of clay, plan and sculpt the form. I will demonstrate how to hollow out the sculpture after it has become "almost leather hard" which the students will have to do at home. Again, I will make a list of places in the area who will fire student work.

Photography: Students will gain insight into increasing the quality of their photographs from either film or digital workmanship. Class will compare digital with film cameras and the students will gain a realization that the highest quality photographic results depend on knowing exposure, composition, contrast, resolution and above all, light, which both methods require.