ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a discussion on teaching scenic art and several examples of class exercises from professors in various programs that address a solid path of learning for the scenic art student. When learning scenic artistry, the student can certainly learn techniques and methods by rote, but students of scenic art are far better off when learning to think their way through a painting project, rather than simply repeating steps. Scenic art class projects should be designed to give the students as wide a range of learning opportunities in each project as possible. Scenic art class time is divided among demonstration, independent work, and group activity. The cornice project works well as a demonstration and as an exercise for students. The pedestal and urn project was created to follow instruction and student practice in the modeling and sculpting of Pissarro shapes with trompe l'oeil technique.