Image credits: Europeana, Vincent Tantardini, Avi Waxman, Chris Curry on Upsplash

This introductory, ‘Learning to Look’ course gives you some foundational knowledge and skills to view, discuss, and explore visual art on your own.

Specifically, we will learn some basic vocabulary and practice the critical observation and descriptive language skills required to do a visual analysis of an artwork, object, or image.

New to all of this art stuff? Maybe it’s been a while since you took that art history class back in the day? Do you need guidance on teaching visual analysis?

No worries, we’ll cover all of the basics AND I provide takeaway worksheets, practice images, and curated resources so you can get the most out of looking at visual art with a critical eye after you complete the course.

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Image credit: Museum of New Zealand, Scott Webb, Tanja Cotoaga, McGill Library on Upsplash

This course in an introduction to the visual qualities of Art found in most 2D and 3D media (painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, etc.) – the Elements of Art, Principles of Design, Subject Matter and Content.

Photography, time-based and digital media, film, and architecture are not included because they require a slightly different toolkit and way of seeing.

Finally, this course focuses exclusively on visual analysis, which is always the first step toward understanding visual art. After all, we have to figure out what we are seeing before we can consider what it means…right?

But what about the other steps? I want to know how to do those too!

Have no fear! We’ll explore other artistic media, style, context, and the interpretation of art in future Learning to Look courses. 😉

OK, course intro out the way! Let’s talk a bit about art history as a ‘way of seeing’ and why learning to look at visual art matters in the first place.