OUT AMONG THE BASIC SHAPES:
Instruction in Shoreline and Shallow Water Research and Illustration

dates:    FRIDAY, AUGUST 29 - MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2008
cost:      $720.00/person (double occupancy)

Participants: newcomers to drawing, families, any artists aged 12 and up.

OUT AMONG THE BASIC SHAPES introduces drawing in a new light -- not as free play of the imagination this time, but as a tool for learning, as portal to the form and structure of the natural world.  Called "close observation drawing" or science illustration, this approach asks the artist to come to know his/her subject matter through observation and analysis and then to draw the species or object with care and precision, representing overall form and subtle features of color and detail.

Day one (Friday):  "The Haunting Call of the Tidal Zones": observation and illustration -- drawing in pencil, pen and ink, water color, and carbon dust on acetate. Participants will examine the denizens of the tide pools, beaches, and rocky shores; create a written ethogram (species profile); and illustrate their sea creatures, using a variety of media. 

Day Two (Saturday): "Calipers, Sea Labs, and Crab Habitats":  studies in human and animal architecture.  Field study, drawing, and 3-dimensional model making.  Participants will come to know the wonder of architecture at the shore: shells, tubes, burrows, etc.; learn the form and structure of historic buildings on the Isles; and do drawings and make 3-D models in response.

Day Three (Sunday): "Drawing and Underwater Archaeology":  using a painted 22-ft-long canvas (that folds out of a carrying case) participants will "dive down" to a representation of an actual shipwreck, map out the site, recover artifacts, and "return to the surface."  There, using scientific instruments and methods,  participants will draw the site in scale, illustrate objects from the wreck, and recreate a sense of the ship and its unusual history.  (Teaches scientific method, triangulation, measuring in general, parts of a ship, recovery and restoration, drawing in scale and plan, cultural history, etc.).

Instructor:
David Wheeler, David Russell Wheeler is a professor at the Sage Colleges and Empire State College in New York. He works professionally as a science illustrator, drawing for the National Park Service and labs. David is trained in the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Center models for arts in education, and has conducted over 225 artist-in-residencies. Wheeler has also written for Arts Education and lead workshops for teachers in New York and throughout New England.