Welcome to Encore's Visual and Technical Arts Conservatory


This department offers a variety of beginning, intermediate, and advanced level courses including general art courses, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, screen writing and costume design. In our program, each student will create a professional portfolio which will include a variety of media and one area of concentration. This portfolio assists students with college entrance as well as professional work upon graduation.

Within the Art Department, there are many ways of becoming involved in The Visual and Technical Arts.  There are many exciting annual activities including: Art Attack, Art Shows, Fashion Shows, and Club Fair.  We are an active part of events such as: fundraisers (like caricatures), set design for theatrical productions, and photography of school events. 
We hope that you find interest in the Visual and Technical Art Conservatory.


  

“Creativity takes courage.” 
Henri Matisse

Course Description

Course Title: Art 1 (Jr. High and HS)
Pre-Requisite: None. 

This Beginning Level course is project-based with demonstrations and discussions of famous artworks for inspiration.  Students will become very familiar with the Elements and Principles of Design.  The Principles of Design are ways in which artists organize and use the Elements of Art to create successful art.    

The Elements of Design include: line, shape, form, space, texture, color, and value.

The Principles of Design include: balance, emphasis, harmony, variety, movement,proportion, and rhythm/repetition.

Students will critique artworks and present information about their own designs.  Constructive Criticism will be provided for all student artworks, so students should be properly prepared to display and present completed artworks.

Honest and helpful advice will be provided in Art Critiques so that students will improve the composition of their designs.


Course Title: Art 2 (Jr. High and HS)
Pre-Requisite: Art 1 or Design and Mixed Media 1

Art 2 is an intermediate level Visual Arts course in which students will: create skillful drawings and paintings, practice new techniques, discuss art in a critical way, learn about the history of art, and perform research for artistic inspiration.  Students will become very familiar with the Elements of Design (line, shape, form, space, texture, color, and value) and Principles of Design (balance, emphasis, harmony, variety, movement, proportion, rhythm, and pattern).
Students will refine their artistic skills and focus upon presentation techniques and portfolio development.

 Course Title: Art 3

Pre-Requisites: Art 1 and Art 2 -or-Drawing and Painting 1 and Drawing and Painting 2

Students in Art 3 will create 10 professional quality artworks for their Art Portfolio.  Artists will research, plan, and develop visual imagery in their uniquely developed Art Styles.  Students will discuss and create artworks using complicated topics such as: social issues, politics, economics, gender, equality, and visual metaphors.  Students will present and discuss artworks considering aesthetic judgment and advanced level vocabulary.  Students will incorporate many of the Elements and Principles of Design into their advanced level artworks.  Artists will decide upon their preferred medium and extend their artistic talents within other medias.


Course Title: Drawing and Painting 1
Pre-Requisite: Art 1 or Design and Mixed Media 1

Drawing and Painting is an Intermediate Level course which will be divided into two semesters of curriculum: the first semester will be drawing techniques, and the second semester will be painting techniques. The Drawing portion of the course covers the introductory design elements as they relate to illustration and includes an in-depth study of visual communication.  The basic Elements of art, design, and color theory will be emphasized.  Students will learn and practice techniques from their warmups.  Students will work with several dry mediums: pencil, pen and ink, pastels, and colored pencil.
Semester 2 will provide students with an introduction of the fundamentals of becoming a painter.   Paintings will be completed in: watercolor, acrylic, India ink, and gouache.  Students will focus upon several painting assignments in order to master the Elements and Principles of Design.  Preparatory drawings and practice assignments will be created so that students can warm up to the final artworks.


Course Title: Drawing and Painting 2
Pre-Requisites: Art 1 and Art 2 -or- Drawing and Painting 1 and 
Drawing and Painting 2

Students in Drawing and Painting 2 will receive one semester of drawing skills and the second semester of painting skills. In the first semester, students will explore elements of drawing through use of different drawing techniques, styles and materials.  This course emphasizes drawing not only as an art form and means of personal expression, but also as a way to increase visual literacy; understanding what and how we see.  Students will develop their observation and accuracy as they progress through a variety of assignments: still life drawings, perspective drawings, portraiture, figure drawing, and landscapes.  Students will continue to develop their compositional understanding by applying the elements and principles of design to their sketches/drawings. A variety of artists will be discussed and students will select individual artists for inspiration.

Course Title: Photography I, II, III
Pre-Requisites: Art 1 and Art 2 -or-Drawing and Painting 1 and Drawing and Painting 2
*Photography is a High School elective only*

Photography students will learn about the history and development of photography through lecture, image presentations, creative exploration, and picture taking exercises. Students will be exposed to many types of photography, as well as become familiar with renowned and respected photographers.
In addition, students will learn how use and point and shoot digital camera, a manual SLR style camera, as well as be able to understand lighting and simple techniques in controlling their image making. Students will learn how an image is created through a digital camera and have an opportunity to learn as they experiment with a variety of processes related to photography. 
Students will also learn basic and complex operations and tools of photoshop CS4 and Adobe Bridge for editing their photos.
Students will also learn how to create a portfolio and present their finished work in a professional manner using a critique process.
Lastly, students will create a professional portfolio of their collective works from the year to be used for college entrance, or possible job opportunities.


Course Title: Screenwriting I, II, III, IV
Pre-Requisite: None. 

Screenwriting is an advanced text-based and visual-based course meant to increase students' awareness of the analytical process in thought and writing necessary to compose a movie script. The course is designed to motivate students into critically analyzing their intentions of communicating their storyline to a director and ultimately to an audience.

Course Description: Costume Design

Course Title: Basic Sewing/Costume Design I
 
This course introduces the basics of costuming, design and sewing.  Students are taught the basics of sewing including sewing terms, parts of the sewing machine, how to use and trouble shoot simple problems with the sewing machine, sewing safety, how to create clothing, closures, pinning, cutting, textiles, patterns and pattern usage.  Second semester focuses more on costuming and design.  Students learn how to design and create costumes inspired by character descriptions, influenced by geographical location, social and economic status, time period and mood.  We focus on using color, texture, cut and style in our designs to convey information to the audience, building creativity and learning the human form and rules for design.

Course Title: Costume Design II
 
Prerequisite:  Basic Sewing/Costume Design I
Costume Design II continues building on the fundamental skills learned in the Basic Sewing/Costume Design I course and has the added challenge of designing and creating basic/ensemble costumes for the school productions.  In this course, students work to improve skills in sewing, costuming, design and sketch in an effort to prepare to move to the next level in costume design.  Students will begin to create a portfolio to catalogue their works.
 
Course Title: Costume Design Lab Course
 
Prerequisite:  Basic Sewing/Costume Design I and Costume Design II.This class is by instructor invitation.
In this lab course, students design and create original works for our school productions.  Students will work to balance creativity, budget, mood, movement and ability to create a costume unique to the character they are assigned in the production.  Students are given hands on lessons in new techniques as the creative process guides each student through their learning journey.  Students create a portfolio of all of their works in order to prepare them for interviews and careers in the Arts and Entertainment Industry.
** Any prerequisite may be over ruled if an assessment is performed by the instructor and it is determined that the student’s prior experience can replace the needed prerequisite(s).