Lesson 1: Collaborative "Exquisite Landscape" Drawings

During the first lesson in the course, students created "exquisite landscape" drawings using pencil on paper. These were inspired by surrealist exquisite corpse drawings, but tapping into the course theme of landscape instead of drawing the figure. Students learned about exquisite corpse drawings and collaborative drawings, while also learning about various mark-making and shading techniques that can be done with a pencil on paper. Each student created a different section of the landscape without seeing the rest of the page, and then participated in a group reflection and discussion while revealing the completed landscapes. Through revealing the finished works, students were able to see how their classmates used the pencil in different ways, and also approached landscape as a genre through different lenses. Surrealism and creative interpretation of landscape were encouraged throughout the process.