Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

The course includes demonstrations, slides, lectures, videos/films and field trips. Students are required to complete six credit hours of painting with a grade of C or better and/or instructor's permission to enroll. A minimum of 3 hours of homework per week in the form of private exploration of the concepts and processes introduced in class will be required. Art 277 fulfills Arts and Letters requirements for Gen. Ed., block transfer and PCC graduation.

Upon successful completion students should be able to:
1. Solve basic problems creatively using a variety of acquired strategies for expressing visual ideas through the figure painting medium.
2. Create personal works of art, which demonstrate a basic understanding of the figure painting discipline, and the processes, materials, and techniques associated it.
3. Ask meaningful questions, identify topical issues, and employ an basic art vocabulary in critical dialogue about the figure painting discipline.
4. Appreciate figure painting from different cultures, facilitating a life-long engagement with the diversity of perspectives of the human experience.
5. Enjoy a basic awareness of the physical world, the nature of the relationship of human beings to it, and our impact on it via the experience of figure painting.
6. Acquire self-critiquing skills en route to autonomous expression through figure painting with respect to the standards established in contemporary and historical works of art.

Students will: •Bring all human senses to the experience of Life Painting. .Examine aspects of the conceptual process; experiencing, visualizing, symbolizing, playing, imagining, etc. •Discover various processes by which the artist sees nature, conceives ideas and executes a painting. •Observe ways to process visual experience through a painting; gesture, massing, expression, etc. •Participate in the review of class painting through application of vocabulary and aesthetic processes. •Experience the connection between sight and the other senses used to understand the figure as subject matter.

•Learn to use acrylic and/or oil paint for translation of ideas. .Become familiar with composition in the picture plane. •Gain sense of three-dimensional illusion through perspective, modeling in light, etc. •Experience various painting surfaces: stretched canvas (prepared in class), masonite, paper, etc. •Become familiar with compositional devices: active/passive, symmetry/asymmetry, rhythm, etc. •Observe interaction between figure and ground. •Discover an individual way of understanding and painting the figure. •Understand the difference between illustration, representation, expression and their effects. •Become familiar with various historical approaches to figure painting and their reflection of the human record. Assessment: Assessment is based on conceptual understanding, quality of work, participation in critiques, progress, effort, and attendance. A written examination, quizzes, written assignments, and a journal may be required.