Phillips Exeter Academy

Advanced Projects: Painting Portraits

ART408

Advanced Projects: Painting Portraits

This 2-D studio intensive provides the exciting opportunity to pursue more-individualized works on paper, canvas and other surface options with an emphasis on narrative portraiture and identity. The course encourages an experimental approach to line, color and tone, as well as form and content. Students will exercise their skills through direct observation of still life, portraiture and still images, but also experiment with drawing as a means to express personal and abstract ideas. Students are encouraged to work in new and challenging ways, such as large-scale works on paper and a series of connected images that are narrative and expressive, resulting in the evolution of a personal artistic style and portfolio. Experimentation with nontraditional mediums and mark making is infused in all studio projects. The sketchbook will play a large role in documenting ideas and recording responses to relevant topics. Each term, students will explore the link between portraiture and photography, learning to take professional studio portraits in the Photo Studio as reference imagery for a painted or drawn portrait. Prerequisite: ART208. Open to all students.