Image by BAC student Robert Kane

Learning to see the world as a series of lines and shapes is the first step in becoming an artist. And developing this basic skill is more popular than ever at the Brentwood Art Center, where beginning and advanced students alike are signing up for classes in the fundamentals of drawing.

“About a year ago we realized the school had gotten away from beginning things,” says Brentwood Art Center director David Limrite. “And a lot of people in painting and sculpture classes had never had a drawing class, and they were becoming frustrated with being unable to take themselves to a higher level.”

This winter and spring, the school is offering four beginning drawing classes, the most ever.

Drawing is really about eye training, says Limrite, or being able to see things as an artist and break them down into geometric shapes. This skill forms the foundation for other art mediums like painting and sculpture. Recently a BAC painting instructor encouraged four students to brush up on their drawing skills, and by the next semester they were the best painters in their class. “That reaffirmed to us that we’re doing the right thing in offering more drawing classes,” says Limrite.

Beginning drawing is also an ideal introductory course for people with no art training. And while natural talent certainly helps a novice artist, eye training is a cultivated skill. “You can teach anybody to look at a bowl of fruit and see a half circle for the bowl, circles for the fruit and a boomerang for the banana,” says Limrite. “And once they do that, it opens up a whole new world, and gives them a tremendous amount of confidence.”

Students in beginning drawing work in pencil on paper and train their eyes to see everyday objects in a new way. Shoes, plants, draped fabric and crumpled paper are common drawing subjects.

This increased emphasis on fundamentals fits right in with the Brentwood Art Center’s philosophy. “We’re pretty traditional, a meat-and-potatoes kind of school,” says Limrite. “We don’t get involved with a lot of trendy things.”

Browse the Brentwood Art Center’s class offerings on Two Smart Dogs. GO!