Studio Arts Course Listings
Courses Offered Spring 2025
- SA 224 - Two-Dimensional Design (fulfills fine arts core requirement)
- SA 225 - Drawing
- SA 304 - Drawing with Color
- SA 323 - Printmaking: Alternative Processes
- SA 326 - Graphics I
- SA 343 - Drawing: A Conceptual Approach
- SA 350 - Visual Thinking
- SA 353 - Book Arts and Artists' Books
- SA 399 - Special Topics in Studio Art: Art and Infrastructure
Course Descriptions
SA 224 - Two-Dimensional Design
(3.00 cr.)
Students learn the essential elements of design through hands-on creation of artworks
and verbal/written expressions of design concepts. Composition is addressed through
employing the Elements of Art (line, shape, value, color, texture, and space) in combination
with the Principles of Design (including movement, harmony, scale, and contrast).
Students work with a range of media and learn to solve creative problems that include
drawing, painting, and collage. Prerequisite for most studio arts courses. Requirement for visual arts majors with
a concentration in studio arts and studio arts minors. Fulfills fine arts core requirement.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring/Summer
Years Typically Offered: Annually
Interdisciplinary Studies: IEN
SA 225 - Drawing
(3.00 cr.)
Through the education of hand and eye, students learn to draw in a manner that mirrors
visual reality as well as to compose fully realized works that involve the imagination.
Basic drawing principles and techniques are explored through line and tone in graphite,
felt-tip pens, charcoal, and pastel on paper. Requirement for visual arts majors with a concentration in studio arts and studio
arts minors.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 227 - 3-D Design in Art and Engineering
(3.00 cr.)
Teaches students the elements of three-dimensional design via interdisciplinary connections
between the fields of studio art and engineering. The foundations of visual communication
and spatial design are addressed through hands-on creation of artworks and verbal/written
analysis of design concepts. Engineering drawing and solid modeling techniques and
conventions are also covered within the context of computer-aided design (CAD) software.
Students work with a range of studio art media and fabrication techniques throughout
the course, including 3-D printing. Fulfills fine arts core requirement. Closed to students who have taken EG 426. Same
course as EG 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall
Years Typically Offered: Annually
Interdisciplinary Studies: IEN
SA 303 - Life Drawing
(3.00 cr.)
A comprehensive introduction to the concepts and techniques for realistically and
expressively drawing the human form. Skeletal and muscle sketches familiarize students
with the structure of human anatomy leading to drawings of nude models. Media includes
graphite, charcoal, ink, and pastel on paper.
Prerequisite: SA 225.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 304 - Drawing with Color
(3.00 cr.)
Color as a vehicle for drawing and composing expressive imagery using colored pencils
and inks. Subject matter drawn from nature and man-made forms.
Prerequisite: SA 225.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 310 - Introduction to Painting
(3.00 cr.)
An introduction to basic painting techniques and theory. Students work both from life
and conceptually.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 311 - Watercolor
(3.00 cr.)
An exploration of the techniques of watercolor painting. Through various projects
involving composition, perspective, color theory, and creative experimentation, landscape,
still life, figure, and abstraction take on a new meaning.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 225 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 312 - Abstract Painting
(3.00 cr.)
Looking at the tradition of abstraction in cubism, neoplasticism, abstract expressionism,
color field painting, and minimalism, students create original works that focus on
form, color, and texture. Through a series of painting explorations, critiques, field
trips, and examination of work by well-known abstract artists, students gain a better
understanding of what is meant by "content in abstraction."
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 313 - Portraits and the Figure
(3.00 cr.)
Using the technique of painting in a single sitting ("alla prima" or "wet into wet"),
students learn to paint the human face and figure, working from life. The course covers
the preparation of grounds and supports and understanding of the tools, techniques,
and concepts of life painting. Students are encouraged to experiment and to emphasize
the tactile quality of paint, concentration, and keen observation.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 225 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 315 - Landscape
(3.00 cr.)
Explores drawing and painting the landscape. Deals with naturalistic ideas, light
being a primary concern. Students improve drawing and painting skills and media as
they work in the classroom and at locations around the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼écommunity. Slide lectures
and a museum visit supplement outdoor sessions.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
Interdisciplinary Studies: IES
SA 322 - Printmaking: Screenprint and Nontraditional Lithography
(3.00 cr.)
An introduction to the materials, techniques, concepts, and equipment used in planographic
(drawing and painting based) and stencil printing methods. In the nontraditional lithographic
method, hand-drawn and/or photographic images are exposed on plates that are printed
uniquely, in multiple layers, and/or in editions. Screens allow the printing of solid
colors and detailed digital imagery through stencils mounted on fabric.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 225 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 323 - Printmaking: Alternative Processes
(3.00 cr.)
An introduction to the materials, techniques, concepts, and equipment used in the
practice of printmaking, with an emphasis on mixed media methods and monotype—the
closest printmaking form to painting. Processes that can be done without a press and
some transfer methods are included. Water- and oil-based, black and white, and color
inks are used. Some prior drawing or painting experience is recommended.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 225 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 326 - Graphics I
(3.00 cr.)
Students learn basic concepts of file formats, bitmap picture editing, vector drawing,
and page layout while developing skills in industry-standard computer graphics software
tools. For visual journalists, designers, and media producers. Same course as CM 322.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 342 - Drawing from Observation
(3.00 cr.)
Through class work and independent assignments, the nature of observation and representation
are the critical focus of this course. Working with a variety of drawing materials
and conceptual formats, students explore subject matter and narrative with an emphasis
upon observation. In successive projects designed to cultivate technical competence
and conceptual autonomy, this course challenges students to develop a personal approach
to space, form, composition, and content.
Prerequisite: SA 225.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 343 - Drawing: A Conceptual Approach
(3.00 cr.)
For conceptual artists, the idea of a work of art matters as much—if not more—than
its physical identity. In this course, students learn to produce drawings intended
to convey an idea using both traditional and nontraditional media. Various artists'
works that have influenced this art movement are studied as inspiration for students'
creative solutions to assigned problems.
Prerequisite: SA 225.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 350 - Visual Thinking
(3.00 cr.)
Focuses on methods of interdisciplinary study essential to scholar and artist. This
course combines elements of studio art, photography, and art history in a hybrid,
seminar/ studio format investigating the history, theory, and material practices of
the visual arts. The course offers a versatile, topics-based curriculum bringing the
techniques of the artist and the labor of the scholar together in one class. Interpreting
research as a creative activity crossing the boundaries of academic disciplines, the
principal learning aim is the cultivation of a scholar-artist capable of innovative
and rigorous investigation of the history of art and the individual creative processes.
Combining experiences of art making and research in the theoretical and historical
context of visual art, assignments offer students a choice of responses involving
text and image. Same course as AH 350 and PT 350.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227 or AH 109 or AH 110 or AH 111 or PT 270.
Restrictions: Restricted to visual arts majors and art history, interarts, photography, and studio
art minors.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 352 - Collage, Assemblage, and the Found Object
(3.00 cr.)
Using found and altered materials, students are led from varied technical approaches
for creating collages on/of paper through a range of conceptual approaches to design
and content. Includes the altering and constructing of relief and three-dimensional,
preexisting materials into works of art (assemblages and found object sculpture).
Same course as CM 344.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 353 - Book Arts and Artists' Books
(3.00 cr.)
Students are introduced to the materials, techniques, concepts, and equipment used
in the craft of making traditional and nontraditional books. They learn folding, stitching,
enclosing, and binding methods while creating three-dimensional works that literally
or metaphorically reference the structure of books, address contemporary ideas about
visual content, and exist as three-dimensional works of art. Same course as CM 349 and PT 353.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 354 - Mixed Media: Color
(3.00 cr.)
Building upon the drawing and painting base formed by foundation courses and personal
experience, this course introduces many mixed media techniques and processes that
can be used to expand one's ideas and expressions. Projects incorporate contemporary
aesthetics, abstraction, and perceptual work. Digital projects and hands-on techniques
include, but are not be limited to, the use of transparency and layering, transfers
of various kinds, and the creating of surfaces upon which to build content. Same course as CM 373.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 225 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Varies
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 360 - Digital Mixed Media
(3.00 cr.)
A combination studio and digital photography course in which the computer is used
as a tool and an integral part of the creative process, but work is achieved through
mixed media studio methods. Two- and three-dimensional projects may include installation
and/or virtual works that exist only on the Internet. Some prior computer experience recommended. Same course as CM 360 and PT 360.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
Interdisciplinary Studies: IEN
SA 361 - Digital Image
(3.00 cr.)
Examines the ways in which the computer and various software programs can be used
to modify and enhance an image as a visual statement for artistic and photojournalistic
use. Same course as CM 369 and PT 361.
Prerequisite: PT 270 or PT 300 or PT 301.
Sessions Typically Offered: Varies
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 364 - Contemporary Digital Art
(3.00 cr.)
Students taking this course gain an understanding of contemporary artists focusing
on new media, while developing their own digital art practice. Video, animation, sound,
web-based artwork, 3-D, interactivity, and other media practices are addressed. Classes
consist of research, discussion, studio projects, critiques, and written work. Same course as CM 364 and PT 364.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 226 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 365 - Clay
(3.00 cr.)
Creativity and honesty in design is emphasized through handbuilding with clay. Students
learn to make original works of glazed clayware and small sculptures using slab, coil,
relief, and mold methods.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 366 - Sculpture
(3.00 cr.)
Students learn to recognize and use the elements that embody a three-dimensional work
of art, defining and using those principles in a variety of media. Students are encouraged
to discover new methodologies of visual thinking that reflect the interdisciplinary
nature of art today. The problem-solving nature of this course includes both conceptual
and observations-based assignments. Students’ three-dimensional artworks are developed
in the classroom and from their sketchbooks.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 367 - Public Art
(3.00 cr.)
An examination of the field of public art. Beginning with an investigation of the
theoretical context of public art, students learn the controversial history of artworks
and monuments in public spaces. Students also meet with community partners in the
city of Baltimore and collaboratively determine the details of a public art project.
Students then develop a series of drawings, models, digital mock-ups, and written
proposals for a larger public art project. Accepted proposals are created and installed
in the final phase of the class. Same course as CM 370.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Varies
SA 370 - Artist in Residence Seminar
(1.00 cr.)
A seminar led by and related to the work of the current semester's Artist in Residence
at the Julio Fine Arts Gallery. Students collaborate with the artist on a project
of a group or individual nature related to the artist's exhibition and practice. Varies
by semester. May be repeated three times for degree credit. Same course as PT 370. (Pass/Fail).
Sessions Typically Offered: Varies
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 378 - Alternative Photographic Processes
(3.00 cr.)
A study of the early processes by which photographic images were recorded and displayed,
including cyanotype, ambrotype, and Van Dyck brown. Students make their own cameras
and emulsions and coat their paper in addition to taking the original photographs.
Explores the aesthetic and expressive possibilities of the older processes. Same course as PT 378.
Prerequisite: PT 270 or PT 300 or PT 301.
Sessions Typically Offered: Varies
Years Typically Offered: Varies
SA 386 - Video Art
(3.00 cr.)
An examination of the aesthetics and history of video art, as well as a study of the
techniques of video production. Students produce numerous short and long video works. Same course as CM 327 and PT 386.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 227 or CM 308 or PT 270 or PT 300 or PT 301.
Sessions Typically Offered: Varies
Years Typically Offered: Annually
Interdisciplinary Studies: IF
SA 399 - Special Topics in Studio Art
(3.00 cr.)
An examination of a specific topic in studio art. Topic may be related to issues of
medium, technique, genre, cultural, historical, or other factors. May be repeated four times for degree credit with different topics.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 225 or SA 227.
Sessions Typically Offered: Varies
Years Typically Offered: Varies
SA 399 - Special Topics in Studio Art: Art and Infrastructure
(3.00 cr.)
In this studio art course, students will engage with local art making and material
sourcing through field trips and in-class learning. Through hands-on experiences students
will learn about the implications of a city's infrastructure and witness firsthand
processing of wool and lumber, and natural dyeing materials learning the many involved
steps in transforming raw materials into products. This course will have a special
appeal for those interested in one or more of the following: Baltimore, the built
environment, material exploration, environmentally based art practice, public art,
and relationships building between people and the places they inhabit.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 225 or SA 227.
SA 400 - Senior Capstone for Artists
(3.00 cr.)
Students are introduced to the working world of the professional artist. Students
create a cohesive body of work that is critiqued throughout the semester and exhibited
at the end of the semester. Students produce a portfolio of digital images of their
artwork with accompanying professional materials aimed at being able to participate
in the art world in some form upon graduation. Students enter at least one exhibition,
mat and frame an artwork, and attend at least one opening reception for an exhibition
off-campus. Normally taken in the fall semester of the senior year. Senior studio arts minors
must have written permission of the instructor. Same course as PT 400.
Prerequisite: SA 224 or SA 225 or SA 227.
Restrictions: Restricted to senior visual arts majors with a concentration in studio arts.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall
Years Typically Offered: Annually
SA 499 - Studio Arts Internship
(3.00 cr.)
An internship provides students the opportunity to build a portfolio and learn on-the-job
skills. Students may complete independent work as an intern with a professional, business,
office, or community organization (or within a similar environment) that provides
them with further experience in their area of interest. Students must remain in continual
contact with the Ãå±±ÂÖ¼éfaculty mentor through the internship’s duration and are responsible
for keeping a daily journal detailing internship activities, including the date, time,
and what work was accomplished. Journal entries are shared with the faculty mentor
each week. The line of inquiry between the faculty mentor and student supporting the
internship culminates in an agreed-upon summary of the experience, such as a small
exhibition or PowerPoint presentation.
Sessions Typically Offered: Fall/Spring
Years Typically Offered: Annually
Questions about Studio Arts Program courses? Contact us.
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