Art

About this course

Ninth grade art is written for a student who intends to get good. Drawing begins with a nine-step value scale and cross-contour line, then moves to timed figure drawing, a measured method for getting a portrait to actually resemble the sitter, pen and ink after Durer and Dore, architectural rendering complete with the figures and trees that give a building scale, product design drawing from ideation through orthographic views, drawing from visual memory, and how personal style emerges from practice rather than being chosen. Color theory covers simultaneous contrast from Albers, additive and subtractive systems, brand color strategy, and a detailed lesson on flesh tones that explains subsurface scattering, the warm-light and cool-shadow rule, and gives specific pigment mixes along with Rembrandt's five-color approach. Painting covers alla prima, glazing over a neutral underpainting, plein air, portrait painting from a live sitter, chiaroscuro and tenebrism, abstract composition judged by real criteria, mural work, and the layered method behind old master paintings.

Sculpture is a full ceramics and three-dimensional unit: wheel throwing, functional pottery where a handle must be comfortable and a spout must not drip, six surface decoration techniques, glaze understood as glass rather than paint, architectural tilework, relief carving, assemblage, architectural model making, and kinetic sculpture. The mixed media unit is really a professional practice unit, covering how to write a 150 to 300 word artist statement, how to develop a series rather than one-off pieces, intaglio printmaking, artist books and altered books, documentary photography after Dorothea Lange and W. Eugene Smith, and how to curate and present a portfolio.

Art history begins with a method for formal analysis before opinion, then runs through the Roman catacombs, Byzantine icons as theology in paint, medieval church art, the Northern Renaissance, the Baroque, Neoclassicism and Romanticism, Modernism, and contemporary art. That last lesson is candid with your student: it says plainly that contemporary art is often confusing and sometimes offensive, describes conceptualism, institutional critique, identity politics, and new media, and then hands over Francis Schaeffer's four criteria for evaluating any artwork, arguing for engaged discernment rather than either uncritical acceptance or reflexive rejection. The course is 72 lessons in eight units at about 45 minutes each, so it is a light subject rather than a daily one, though several assignments deliberately run longer than one sitting, including a two-hour portrait session with a family member and a visit to a museum, gallery, or reputable online collection. Units seven and eight consolidate the fundamentals again with line quality, negative space, blind contour, foreshortening, composition, color harmony schemes, Fauvism, and pigment history. Each lesson is a headed reading of six hundred words or more ending with a specific assignment, and a ten-question quiz that grades itself. Supplies are real at this level: drawing pencils and a sketchbook, dip pen or technical pens and ink, acrylic or oil paint with the named earth and cadmium pigments, canvas panels around 9x12 and 11x14, brushes, clay with access to a wheel and kiln where possible, and a camera. Where studio equipment is not available, the lessons offer research and writing alternatives.

What the course covers

• Value scales, cross-contour, and timed figure drawing
• Measured portrait drawing, pen and ink, and drawing from memory
• Architectural rendering and industrial design drawing
• Simultaneous contrast, flesh tone mixing, and limited palettes
• Alla prima, glazing, chiaroscuro, plein air, and mural painting
• Wheel throwing, functional pottery, surface decoration, and glaze chemistry
• Relief, assemblage, architectural models, and kinetic sculpture
• Intaglio printmaking, artist books, and documentary photography
• Art history from the catacombs through Modernism to contemporary art
• Artist statements, developing a series, and portfolio presentation

What your student will be able to do

• Render form convincingly through a full value range in pencil, ink, and paint
• Mix believable flesh tones and paint a portrait from a live sitter
• Throw, decorate, and glaze functional pottery or build in relief and assemblage
• Analyze an artwork formally before judging it, and apply a stated Christian framework
• Develop a cohesive body of work rather than isolated pieces
• Write an artist statement and present a curated, professional portfolio

Scope and sequence

All 8 units of Art for Grade 9, in the order they are taught.

Every lesson, by title

All 72 lesson titles are listed here — nothing is withheld until you download. Open a unit to read its contents.

One whole lesson, exactly as it comes

This is a real lesson taken from the middle of the course — the teaching text, the practice, the homework, and the first three quiz questions with their answers. It is not a marketing excerpt.

What you will need

Drawn from the materials named across all 72 lessons of this course. Most families already own most of it.