Anacortes Senior College

This Drawing course is for people with little to no experience with drawing, but a desire to try something new to challenge their thinking, observation skills, and creativity. The lessons will offer a supportive, confidence-building environment in which adult learners develop foundational skills through a thoughtfully sequenced series of activities that build week by week. Beginning with the physical fundamentals of drawing—such as hand coordination and mark-making—the course gradually advances to perspective, proportion, and complex forms, with each new technique reinforcing prior lessons. We will practice drawing from direct observation as well as the imagination. By nurturing innate creative abilities and emphasizing focused, accurate observation, students strengthen both technical skill and self-confidence. The course also frames drawing as a meditative, present-moment practice, encouraging participants to slow down, observe deeply, and engage creatively—making the learning experience both enriching and restorative.

Week 1 — Dropping into the Slipstream: Entering Focused Awareness

Purpose: To help students slow down; quiet mental noise, and enter a state of attentive presence that supports learning and creativity. Core Themes: Letting go of performance pressure; shifting from thinking about drawing to experiencing seeing; establishing calm; sustained attention. Learning Emphases: Drawing as a practice of attention; Eye–hand connection; Awareness of line, space, and proportion without judgment. Typical Practices: Blind and semi-blind contour drawing, slow observational exercises, timed drawings that emphasize presence over outcome. Outcome: Students learn how to enter a focused, receptive state—the foundation for all observational drawing.

Week 2 — Working Within the Current: Deepening Observation and Visual Understanding

Purpose: To develop accurate observation while maintaining the ease and momentum of flow established in Part I. Core Themes: Staying present while engaging skill; Seeing relationships rather than objects; Trusting perception over assumption. Learning Emphases: Proportion, angles, and spatial relationships; Light, shadow, and form observing before correcting. Typical Practices: Measuring techniques (sight-size, comparative measurement); Value studies and simple forms; Extended observational drawings. Outcome: Students strengthen their ability to remain in focused flow while drawing with increasing accuracy and confidence.

Week 3 — Responding with Intention: Integrating Skill, Expression, and Choice

Purpose: To help students consciously shape their drawings while staying connected to observation and flow. Core Themes: Choice without force; Expression grounded in seeing; Balancing structure and freedom. Learning Emphases: Selective emphasis and simplification; Personal mark-making; Creative interpretation rooted in observation. Typical Practices: Longer, self-directed drawings; Compositional decisions; Reflective discussion of process. Outcome: Students learn to respond, using skill and creativity together, while remaining grounded in attention and presence.

 (Class size is limited to 20 students.)

Materials: All are available at Bayshore or on Amazon. Students will need: A blank notebook at least 8”x10”  (this can be an art sketchbook or simply 8-10 blank sheets of copy paper per session), 2-3 sharpened 2B pencils, An eraser (white plastic art eraser, gum eraser, or kneaded eraser).

Instructor: Drusilla Hill

Dru Hill has studied, created, and taught art in the United States and abroad, to children and adults. She has worked as a commercial illustrator, graphic designer, fine artist, and teacher after receiving a BA/FA, an Associate Degree in Commercial Art, and MA of Education. Works by Dru Hill have been acquired by businesses and private collectors in the United States and Europe. She has shown in galleries and juried shows including: The Frye Art Museum, Northwest Watercolor Society, the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, Tubac Center for the Arts, and the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild.