Anatomy for Artists Intensive

At Venture High, we offer "Intensives" twice each year.  These are unique courses that provide the opportunity for students to explore specific concepts in-depth.  The students sign up for one class, which they attend all day, every day for two weeks.  This semester, I am teaching an "Anatomy for Artists" course that introduces basic skeletal structure through art.  The class's final product  is a life-size skeleton drawing.  Each day students draw a different section of the skeleton, using a model and photos for reference.  It has been one of the most demanding art classes I have taught, with students drawing steadily for four or five hours per day.  First, they draw pencil studies the bones, then spend the majority of the day drawing specific parts of the skeleton which they later use to assemble the full skeleton body.  The students have produced some amazing work.  One of the "character"  learning targets for this course was "perseverance" because I knew it would be a large, demanding project, and my students exceeded my expectations.  I am proud of their efforts.  Below are a few drawings in progress.