Pathways
Digital Media
Students will take Cartooning, Animation, and Illustration as their electives alongside their yearlong Digital Media core class. This pathway is designed for students who wish to explore established, new and emerging technologies and connect those creative practices to the essential elements of storytelling, world-building, and personal voice to develop a digital and media-literate foundation in Art & Design.
Drawing & Painting
For the Drawing & Painting core focus, students have a further choice in their elective package between Printmaking and Sculpture (Package A) or Architecture and Ceramics (Package B), with Digital Media a required class in both options. This pathway is designed for students who wish to expand beyond the traditional practices of Drawing and Painting and experiment with different tools, materials, and mediums to develop a multidisciplinary, tactile and material-based foundation in Art & Design.
Class Descriptions
Animation
Students explore both traditional, stop-motion and digital methods of animation as they consider all aspects of the creative process from narrative structures and storytelling to character design and world-building. They will use image and video editing software including Adobe Photoshop, Animator and After Effects to delve deep into the unique mechanics of time, motion, sound, and special effects.
Architecture
Students learn the fundamentals of architectural design, from sketching to model making, developing their creative problem-solving sills as they lay out floor plans and build 3D structures using cardboard and mixed media.
Cartooning
In this class, students create text and image-based narratives through the creative conventions of cartooning. Fundamental Art & Design elements such as composition, visual balance, movement, and scale are considered in close detail. Through pen and ink or pencil and marker, the fine motor skills of breathing life into the combination of character, story and illustration are central to the art of cartooning.
Digital Media
Students work in the exciting realm of digital technologies to create original or composite images, graphics, and animations that explore fundamental aspects of digital media such as space, time, light, sound, and motion. Technical skills are honed through the use of cameras, computers, tablets and sound recorders in combination with creative software like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Rush, GarageBand, GDesign, Pixel Art, and more. Students will learn to edit, manipulate, and create original digital media and gain a strong understanding of the all tools, techniques, and shortcuts necessary to become creative media artists.
Drawing & Painting
Students will hone their technical skills and explore new modes of representation using traditional and non-traditional methods. Students will use the basic elements and principles of Art & Design to engage in a variety creative and experimental approaches to art-making. They will produce work from a variety of perspectives including reference, observation, or imagination to discover the transformative potential of marks on a surface.
Printmaking
Students explore various printmaking techniques including block printing, monoprinting, digital, engraving, stencils and more. Students will learn the entire printmaking process from sketching to plate creation, and printing to collage. This course encourages students to consider design elements such as space, texture, design and pattern as well as working with multiples or in a series.
Sculpture
Students create three-dimensional works using a variety of carving and modelling techniques to shape, combine, craft, and construct freestanding artworks with a variety of sculptural tools. They will explore certain principles of Art & Design such as space, form, scale, texture, and balance and work with diverse media including wood, plaster, clay and wire. Through this, students will explore different modes of representation and abstraction inspired by contemporary and historical artists and consider the role and function that sculpture and ceramics play in our lives.
Bursaries
Finances should never prevent a child from participating in the arts. As a non-profit organization, Arts Umbrella is committed to making our programs accessible to as many children and youth in our communities as possible. The Arts Umbrella Bursary Fund allows hundreds of children to register in tuition-based programs at a reduced rate, based on your family’s financial need.
Applications for bursary funding are open to everyone. To view eligibility and submission details, please visit our Scholarships & Bursaries page. Your privacy matters to us. All applications are held in confidence.