Drawing: The Foundation of Everything

Drawing skills are painting skills. This drawing course for painters. It is comprehensive, each section builds on the earlier sections. You’ll think about these skills for the rest of your life!

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Meet your instructor

Meet your instructor ✳

Sarah Burns

Sarah Burns is a classically trained draftswoman and painter.

She has worked with countless artists of all types to help them utilize drawing skills to realize their artistic goals.

Sarah lives and paints in Southern Oregon. When she’s not working, she loves native plant gardening, looking for hot springs, and hiking in the mountains. She’s always up for a sauna and a cold plunge!

What you’ll learn

  • Learning how to start a drawing or painting can save a TON of time and build a good foundation for a successful finish.

    Proportion and Placement are the first elements you need to learn to manage to make good compositions. You need to be able to control the size and location of your subject in order to create a design.

  • Learn to understand perspective in a practical and intuitive way.

    Understanding perspective will help you create a sense of 3 dimensions in your work.

  • Good shading is built of solid form. You will apply the lessons learned from perspective to construction of the form. Lessons learned depicting simple forms are allow you create complex forms.

  • Many people misunderstand how value expresses light effect. You will learn the distinction. You will also learn to identify key areas of light and shadow. You will learn how a thorough understanding of light effect is crucial for painting with color.

  • This lesson will teach you how to simplify your value patterns to create powerful compositional designs.

  • Once you have a solid foundation of accurate proportions, perspective, form and clear values, you’re ready for detail! Learn how to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to detail. Create form that turns and show texture through sensitivity at the edges.

Course FAQ

  • I get it! I remember thinking the same thing when I was a drawing student. I always found it frustrating that he would say, “Drawing is painting.” Now, 20 years later, all I think about in nearly every painting I make are drawing issues! These skills will serve you for the rest of your life!

  • Email me! I’m happy to answer your quick questions over email. If you need in-depth support, I offer affordable artist mentoring over zoom or in-person, if you’re in Southern Oregon.