Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

The course includes demonstrations, slides, lectures, videos/films and field trips. The course utilizes professional nude models as the basis for student assignments. 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.This is the third of a sequence of three coursesCollege level reading comprehension is necessary.Art 277A fulfills Arts and Letters requirements for Gen. Ed., block transfer and PCC graduation

Upon successful completion students should be able to:1. Master complex 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 thorough understanding of the figure painting discipline, and the processes, materials, and techniques associated it.3. Ask meaningful questions, identify topical issues, and employ a knowledgeable art vocabulary in critical dialogue about the figure painting discipline.4. Understand, interpret, and appreciate figure painting from different cultures, facilitating a life-long engagement with the diversity of perspectives of the human experience.5. Enjoy a strong 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. Expand self-critiquing skills en route to autonomous expression through figure painting with respect to the standards established in contemporary and historical works of art.

The course may include demonstrations, slides, lectures, video/films andfield trips.• Build upon current skill set with the intent of working towards technical andconceptual proficiency.1)Create life paintings that incorporate a variety of technical skills with anawareness of the inherent characteristics of different life painting processes.2)Generate ideas/concepts with an awareness of the intended content of the workproduced.3)Build upon current skill set with the intent of working towards technicalproficiency.4)Practice safe studio practices in regards to the handling of tools, chemicals andmachinery within a communal studio space.5)Utilize the necessary vocabulary specific to life painting when participating inclass critiques and discussions.6)Assess and self-critique personal work to strategize creative solutions.7)Develop personal work with an awareness of historical and contemporary artistsworking in life painting.

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

Refine skill with acrylic and/or oil paint for translation of ideas. Become more familiar with composition in the picture plane.Understand and describe sense of three-dimensional illusion through perspective, modeling in light, etc.Experience various painting surfaces and combined media: stretched canvas (prepared in class), masonite, paper, collaged elements, etc.Elaborate on compositional devices: active/passive, symmetry/asymmetry, rhythm, etc.Observe and articulate interaction between figure and ground.Refine an individual approach to understanding and painting the figure.Explore the differences between illustration, representation, expressionand their effects.Explore and adapt various historical approaches to figure painting andtheir reflection of the human record.