Artist's Intensive Course: Self-improvement or Sadism, you decide!

Do you have books that sit on your shelf. You find yourself looking at them and saying "I'm going to read that!" and then you never do? You move these books with you from apartment to apartment, but despite how good your intentions are, you never end up reading them. 

I was the same. I had a few textbooks from university kicking around that I had saved because felt too rushed during the course to read them as in-depth as I would have liked. I told myself I'd read them during the summer, but never did. As a self-identified "artsy person" a common gift would be an art instruction book. Despite how cool they looked, and how helpful I knew they would be, they also joined the dusty ranks of unread books on my bookshelf. 

But no longer!

This summer, I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to read. those. books. Once and for all!

And so, I have created an ARTIST'S INTENSIVE course for myself, combining practical art training, a semi-spiritual journey, and some academic texts. I will be killing multiple birds with one stone, and hopefully becoming a better artist in the process.

If you would like to join me (and I really hope you do!) here's what my course entails: 

MATERIALS:

• The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
• The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
• Ways of Seeing by John Berger 
• Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Selected readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger edited by Albert Hofstadter and Richard Kuhns
• A notebook for morning pages
• A notebook for course notes, completing the tasks, etc
• A sketchbook for the "Brain" exercises (optional, if your notebook is blank)

You can find my book list here, with more information about the books: [BOOKS]

COURSE OUTLINE:

Oooh, a course outline. How official. How academic! How nerdy. Indeed.

Week one: 

1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Introduction to Chapter 2 (p. xvii-25)
2. Artist's Way: Introduction to Week 1 (p. 9-59)
3. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Plato (p. 3-77)
4. Ways of Seeing: Part 1 (p. 7-34)

Week two:

1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Chapter 3 & 4 (p. 28-65)
2. Artist's Way: Week 2 (p. 60-79)
3. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Aristotle (p. 78-138)
4. Ways of Seeing: Part 2 & 3 (p. 35-64)

Week three:

1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Chapter 5 & 6 (p. 68-113)
2. Artist's Way: Week 3 (p. 80-98)
3. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Plotinus (p. 139-170)
4. Ways of Seeing: Part 4 & 5 (p. 65-112)

Week four:

1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Chapter 7 (p. 116-135)
2. Artist's Way: Week 4 (p. 99-112)
3. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Augustine & Ficino (p. 171-238)
4. Ways of Seeing: Part 6 & 7 (p. 113-154)

Week five:

1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Chapter 8 (p. 138-159)
2. Artist's Way: Week 5 (p. 113-127)
3. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Shaftsbury (p.239-276)

Week six:

1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Chapter 9 (p. 162-191)
2. Artist's Way: Week 6 (p.128-139)
3. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Kant (p. 277-343)

Week seven:

1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Chapter 10 (p. 194-227)
2. Artist's Way: Week 7 (p. 140-151)
3. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Shelling (p.344-377)

Week eight:

1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Chapter 11 (p. 230-245)
2. Artist's Way: Week 8 (p. 152-173)
3. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Hegel (p. 378-445)

Week nine:

1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: Chapter 12 (p. 248-265)
2. Artist's Way: Week 9 (p. 174-185)
3. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Schopenhauer (p. 446-495)

Week ten:

1. Artist's Way: Week 10 (p. 186-201)
2. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Nietzsche (p. 416-554)

Week eleven:

1. Artist's Way: Week 11 (p. 202-216)
2. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Croce (p. 556-576)

Week twelve:

1. Artist's Way: Week 12 (p. 217-227)
2. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Dewey (p. 557-646)

Week thirteen:

1. Artist's Way: Epilogue (p. 228-end)
2. Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Heidegger (p. 645-708)

I know it looks like a lot, and at the beginning it is. However, the readings whittle off as the weeks go by, and ideally it becomes less of a tedious task, and more of a nice habit.

I will be posting videos and blogs recording my experiences along the way, so stay tuned for that! 

If you clicked this link looking for something that would kick your butt into gear so you can finally start working on that passion project you've put aside for various reasons, consider this a sign to start working on it again!  While I haven't completed the course yet, you might want to consider picking up The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron: It's not really about art, per se, as it is about allowing yourself to be creative, to start that project you've always wanted to, to find good life-work balance and discover who you are so that you can best be who you are.

For those of you motivated to start a challenge yourself, I wish you the best of luck!
Stay tuned for updates about how my project is going! Let's motivate each other!