Online Foundation Course
Basic Design Concepts (Course 101)
Duration: 1 Year | 2 Semesters | 9 Months
A thirty-six week online course in the fundamentals of two-dimensional design — line, density, texture and tone, then the complete colour system — worked through one set exercise a week.
Structure
How the course runs
- Thirty-six weekly guided exercises across two semesters.
- Each week carries a set subject, its materials and its process.
- A sketch examination closes most months.
- A semester break falls between months three and four.
- Month nine is given to the final project and the end-of-year examination.
Curriculum
Week-by-week programme
Every week sets one subject, the materials it is worked in, and the process to be followed. The full programme is set out below.
Semester 1 — Months 1 to 3
Month 1
| Week | Subject | Materials | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Line and Area Bending | A3 sketchbook, rapidograph, felt-tip pen, ruler, French curve | By drawing organic/inorganic effect lines in dense/sparse, vertically, and inwardly, the effect of indentations and protrusions will be created on the paper, and area bending will be studied. |
| Week 2 | Density 1 (Letter-Collage) | Text areas of different sizes from newspapers and magazines, scissors, glue | By working as a collage of text areas of different sizes and fonts, areas of different densities will be obtained. |
| Week 3 | Density 2 (Point) | A3 paper, rapidograph, felt-tip pen | Tone and volume research using densely and sparsely spaced points in drawings consisting of geometric forms or on designs in their own fields. |
| Week 4 | Sketch Exam | A3 sketchbook, pencil, ruler, various coloured painting materials | — |
Month 2
| Week | Subject | Materials | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Density 3 (Symbol) | A3 sketchbook, rapidograph, felt-tip pens (coloured) | Letters, symbols, and numbers will be used densely/sparsely, layered on top of each other, to create dark and light areas in the composition underlined below, in order to obtain volume and tone. |
| Week 2 | Line Types and Hatching | A3 paper, Rapidograph, pen, pencil | On the left side of the paper, the student will create hatchings from various line types, and on the right side, these hatchings will be used as hatching types on a form. |
| Week 3 | Form and Creation | Indian ink, rapidograph, brush, papers, napkin, brush, etc. | Designing an object or artwork related to the area by combining the ready-made materials. Four geometric forms will be drawn at the top of the paper, and organic forms will be created below them based on these geometric forms. At the bottom, a composition will be created from the combination of all these forms, and an outer form will be obtained by colouring the inside with ink. They will evaluate this form in a design for their respective fields. |
| Week 4 | Contrast (Black and White) | Indian ink, rapidograph, brush, papers, napkin, brush, etc. | It will consist of two parts. In both parts, the same work will be painted with Indian ink in a positive-negative way, and the effect of the change on the design will be examined. |
Month 3
| Week | Subject | Materials | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Texture | File papers, soft-tipped pen, charcoal, soft paints, scissors | The 6 textures obtained will be presented on the right side of the paper, and on the left side, an illustration will be made from these textures (the number of textures used is free) and drawn to resemble the texture. |
| Week 2 | Continuing of Texture | — | — |
| Week 3 | Tone (Light-Dark) | Grammage paper, Acrylic or Gouache paints (Black and White), brush palettes, masking tape, water containers, etc. | A tone chart exercise will be done on twelve sections of paper, with a certain amount of white mixed with black in each section. |
| Week 4 | Semester break | — | — |
Semester 2 — Months 4 to 9
Month 4
| Week | Subject | Materials | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Semester break | — | — |
| Week 2 | Colour Wheel | Acrylic or Gouache paints (Primary colours + black and white), brush, water container, palette, weighted paper, etc. | Primary colours, secondary colours, and the contents of the colour wheel, types of harmony. |
| Week 3 | Colour Tone (Monochrome) | Coloured pencils, A3 paper | Students will colour their own designs by selecting from all the tones obtained during the transition of a single colour from black to white. |
| Week 4 | Sketch Exam | A3 sketchbook, pencil, ruler, various coloured painting materials | — |
Month 5
| Week | Subject | Materials | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Complementary/Contrasting Colours and Neutralization | Acrylic or Gouache paints (Primary colours), brush, water container, palette, weighted paper, etc. | On the left, patterns consisting of 3 contrasting colour groups in 3 separate boxes; on the right, the same patterns with the same colours, but with a neutral colour obtained by mixing the contrasting colours as the 3rd colour. |
| Week 2 | Polychrome (Multiple Colour Harmony) | Acrylic or Gouache paints (Primary colours + black and white), brush, water container, palette, weighted paper, etc. | Using more than two colours (paying attention to the polychrome harmony rules on the colour wheel), the colour boxes will be shown above, and the design painted with these colours will be shown below. |
| Week 3 | Analogic Harmony (Harmony of Similar Colours) | Acrylic or Gouache paints (Primary colours + black and white), brush, water container, palette, weighted paper, etc. | In the 3 boxes above, 3 Analogic colours from the colour wheel will be selected, and they will apply this harmony to the design/composition they draw in the large area below. |
| Week 4 | Colour-Tone Relationship | Acrylic or Gouache paints (Primary colours + black and white), brush, water container, palette, weighted paper, etc. | In this activity consisting of 4 boxes, each box will contain the same drawing. The top boxes will be used for colour tones, and the bottom boxes for complementary/contrasting colours, and the effect of harmony on the design will be examined. |
Month 6
| Week | Subject | Materials | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Physical Mixing of Colour | Acrylic or Gouache paints (Primary colours + black and white), toothbrush, water container, palette, weighted paper, etc. | Using a toothbrush and spraying method, the colours will be mixed homogeneously, and the resulting new colours will be observed. Four colour boxes will be created in the upper area using spraying. Below, they will observe the colours resulting from the mixtures and the designs they created by spraying these colours on top of each other. |
| Week 2 | Symmetry and Repetition | Acrylic or Gouache paints (Primary colours + black and white), brush, water container, palette, weighted paper, etc. | In a symmetrical vertical or horizontal composition consisting of geometric forms, the areas are also symmetrically coloured and with a certain harmony. |
| Week 3 | Continuing of Symmetry and Repetition | — | — |
| Week 4 | Sketch Exam | A3 sketchbook, pencil, ruler, various coloured painting materials | — |
Month 7
| Week | Subject | Materials | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Asymmetry and Repetition | Acrylic or Gouache paints (Primary colours + black and white), brush, water container, palette, weighted paper, etc. | In an asymmetrical vertical or horizontal composition consisting of geometric forms, the areas are also asymmetrically coloured and with different harmonies will be completed. It will be submitted as a presentation file, containing drawings and photographs showing the production stages, as well as a text describing the process. |
| Week 2 | Continuing of Asymmetry and Repetition | — | — |
| Week 3 | Photographic Illustration and Colour Tone | Images from magazines, pencil, scissors, glue, A3 paper | They will paste a colourful image cut from a magazine onto the left side, and illustrate the same image on the right side with a pencil, paying attention to the colour tones. |
| Week 4 | Photographic Illustration and Material Differences | Acrylic or Gouache paints (Primary colours + black and white), brush, water container, palette, weighted paper, dry paint | They will recreate a colour photograph using dry paints and materials such as gouache/acrylic. By copying, the difference in materials obtained with different paints will be observed. |
Month 8
| Week | Subject | Materials | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Introduction to Collage and Photographic Illustration | Magazines, scissors, glue, coloured pencils, various painting materials | They will paste the images they cut from the magazine and continue the composition they created on the rest of the paper by working with coloured materials to create an illustration. |
| Week 2 | Continuing of Introduction to Collage and Photographic Illustration | — | — |
| Week 3 | Collage 1 | Magazines, scissors, glue | They will create meaningful compositions with the images they cut from magazines. |
| Week 4 | Collage 2 | Coloured craft papers, scissors, glue | They will cut the coloured papers into small squares and create compositions with a mosaic effect. |
Month 9
| Week | Subject | Materials | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Framing Study | Magazines, dry paints, scissors Adhesive | They will cut out and paste a part of the image they cut from the magazine, and complete the rest by drawing and colouring. |
| Week 2 | Final project | — | — |
| Week 3 | Final project | — | — |
| Week 4 | End-of-Year Exam | A3 sketchbook, pencil, various painting materials, brush | — |
Materials
What you will work in
Across the year the course works in:
- A3 sketchbook and loose A3 paper
- Pencils, coloured pencils and charcoal
- Rapidograph, felt-tip pens and a ruler
- Indian ink, brushes and a French curve
- Acrylic or gouache paints — primary colours plus black and white — with palettes and water containers
- Magazines, newspapers, coloured craft papers, scissors and glue
Bring an A3 sketchbook to every session. A full materials list is confirmed at enrolment.