Drawing with Confidence
Adult Class | Registration opens Monday, February 9, 2026 8:00 AM EST
Designed for students who took Intro to Drawing or already have a grasp of basic drawing techniques, this course takes you further into form, shading, structure, and expression while keeping at your pace.
Students will hone their skills in class through short lectures, demos, individual help and copying and drawing from life, as well as homework assignments each week. Some of the subjects we’ll draw are: buildings, landscapes, trees, animals, portraits and figures. You will learn about and try different techniques for detailed rendering, quick sketching, perspective and composition.
Explore life model drawing on the last two days of class.
What You Will Learn:
- Make detailed rendered value drawings
- Explore different shading techniques
- Gain more understanding of the structure of the human and animal head and body through studying basic anatomy
- Begin to develop an understanding of decisive, quick sketching
- Confidence and comfort with the materials
• Legion Paper Samples (buy the Drawing Sampler, 25 8.5 x5.5 papers for $13 plus shipping)
• Drawing pad (white paper) 9 x 12 or whatever size you have already
• Pencils 2H, HB, 2B, 6B, 8B or a full set
• 1 blending stump, tortillion or a few q-tips
• 2 erasers: 1 kneaded, 1 Mono Zero
• Ruler (minimum 6”)
• Vellum or other smooth, quality tracing paper pad such as: Crehatos 8.5" x 11" Tracing Paper, Translucent Tracing Pad, 100 Sheets 38lb/60gsm Vellum Art Paper
• Viewfinder
• Folder or binder clip, or binder with sheet protectors for handouts
• Optional: X-acto knife (for sharpening pencil) and sandpaper
• Optional: Sennelier fixative for graphite to protect drawings from smearing
Optional:
• Used copy of A Course in Pencil Sketching, Four Books in One by Earnest Watson copyright 1978 (if you can’t acquire one, I will have photocopies available)
• Start Sketching and Drawing Now a bookazine by Grant Fuller (if you can’t acquire one, I will have photocopies available)
Ally Messer
Ally Messer is an interdisciplinary artist and maker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2017, Messer co-founded Laika Press, a cooperative, community-based print shop aimed at increasing accessibility to printmaking in her hometown of Reno, NV. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from the University of Nevada, Reno and an MFA in Fibers and Material Studies from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.
Dedicated to storytelling, Messer's work often takes the form of books, zines, animation, puppetry, and installation. Her most recent body of work highlights instances of care and reciprocity in communities of species-not-our-own; with the hope that humans may learn from the entangled world how to better support one another in this time of ecological crisis.
https://www.allymesser.com/