Environment & Composition
Will Weston
Learn composition, perspective and how to draw environments with depth and complexity.
few spots left!
About the event
Time & Location
April 28 - May 01, 2022
Graz, Austria:
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Botanical Garden
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Eggenberg Palace
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Schlossberg & Clocktower
Entry fees: less than 20€
All locations are close to the city center easily reachable with public transport.
Key Info
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4-day intensive workshop
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drawing at the Botanical Garden, Eggenberg Palace, Schlossberg & Uhrturm
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personal feedback
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only 20 spots available
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Entry fees: less than 20€
Drawing Locations
Student Gallery
Description
This intensive on-location drawing workshop addresses two essential issues:
1) Specific drawing skills needed for drawing landscapes and other environments
2) Picture composition techniques applicable to film, animation, graphic novels, children’s books, games or landscape drawing & painting.
Drawing for composition differs from simply drawing objects. Everything in a composition is drawn with consideration of its place in the overall arrangement. Basically, the same object may be drawn quite differently depending where it is in the picture. Everything must be clear, easily recognized, organised in groups, provide depth, and direct the eye to focal points.
To address these needs Will shows students multiple ways to draw a variety of plants, rocks, objects and architecture and how to place them effectively in compositions.
The workshop is based on courses Will developed for professionals at DreamWorks’ TV and Feature Animation, Blizzard Entertainment, for the Art Directors and Animation Guilds in LA, the Society of Illustrators in LA, and in college classrooms.
Personal Feedback
Every student gets personal feedback from Will. You can show him your drawings and he will talk to you individually and give you tips on how to improve. If you have questions throughout the class, you can ask him any time. If you have specific requests for a demo, he will try his best to incorporate that too.
Core Principles
Good drawing is drawing that accomplishes its purpose. In our case, that's drawing things that serve descriptive and compositional needs, allowing us to create effective pictures.
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Perspective
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Composition
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Plants & organic structures
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Architecture
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Object drawing
What You'll Learn
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Students learn to draw plants, objects and architecture in ways that support compositional needs.
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To study composition from existing art in museums or books, and apply that knowledge to their own work.
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You leave the workshop with the skills needed to learn and improve independently after the workshop.
Prerequisites
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18 years of age (younger only by parental consent).
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Basic drawing experience is recommended, but beginners will be fine.
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Will Weston starts at the very beginning with basic proportions and progresses from there.
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Though the course has an overall agenda, Will teaches students individually in class and adjusts his instruction to suit the level of each student.
(Preliminary) Material List
You may draw digitally or traditionally!
Digital:
Portable device, like the iPad
Drawing pen
Traditional:
Drawing Board about 11” X 17” = A3 (optional)
Spiral bound pad of 11” X 14” = A3 white sketch paper
10% cool gray alcohol marker
Prismacolor or Polychromos pencils in black
A pencil sharpener with a catch basin for shavings
Portable stool to sit on.
About the Instructor
Will Weston had a long career in illustration before entering the animation field, where he worked for Disney Feature Animation, Disney TV Animation, Warner Bros. Animation, Nickelodeon Animation and Sony Feature Animation. He left the animation field 13 years ago to help develop the very successful Entertainment Arts program at ArtCenter in Pasadena, CA, where he used to teach figure drawing and costumed figure drawing, drawing for composition, composition for film, digital painting and style development for feature animation and games.
Additionally, Will currently lectures and teaches professional workshops for DreamWorks Animation and other professional organizations in Los Angeles. His recent public workshops have been in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Copenhagen, and now Graz, Austria for Carbon Black Workshops. To see examples of Will Weston’s teaching methods and a sampling of excellent student work, scroll through @willwestonstudio on Instagram.
Extracurricular Activities
We organise breakfasts and dinners in a cosy atmosphere that allow you to get to know your fellow students. Details will be announced on site and shortly before the start of the workshop. Joining is not a must, but everyone is welcome to hang out.
Schedule
This schedule is subject to change.
Workshop
9:00 - 13:00
Lunch Break
13:00 - 14:30
Workshop
14:30 - 18:30
Covid Safety Regulations
The following regulations are based on the laws and guidelines of the Austrian government.
As of March 25:
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FFP2-Masks are not mandatory for this small workshop, but you are free to wear them.
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Antigen or PCR tests are not required, but test results can be submitted on a voluntary basis.
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Travel regulations can be found here.
We will update these rules regularly. Participants will be informed about the latest changes via email.
Last update: March 24, 2022.
