Program type:

Major
Format:

On Campus
Est. time to complete:

4 years
Credit Hours:

120
Your future is a blank canvas. Make it a masterpiece!
Pursuing your passion for drawing and painting means investigating a wide range of issues and media rooted in contemporary and historical art practice. The Drawing and Painting program excels in supporting students as they expand their artistic capabilities by providing and cultivating an intellectual and creative environment for students to explore, experiment, and think critically.

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Why Earn a Studio Art Degree with a Concentration in Drawing & Painting?

Students in the Drawing and Painting program have generous access to accomplished creative professionals and visiting artists who provide excellent mentorship: encouraging an adventurous exploration of media and modeling a dedication to their creative research, interdisciplinary experimentation and professional practices.

Our instruction emphasizes basic technical information, demonstrations, lectures, slide presentations and individual and group critiques. Using this approach, we:

  • Guide you toward finding your individual voice, culminating in the development of a coherent body of work
  • Train you to commit to an independent studio practice, consistent with that of a professional artist

Students are encouraged to work across a broad range of contemporary and traditional painting and drawing practices, concepts, aesthetic conventions, methods and techniques. The breadth and depth of our program are built upon the diversity of expertise of our faculty and their shared commitment to excellence as working artists and thoughtful teachers.

Marketable Skills
  • Creative thinking
  • Adapting techniques
  • Autonomous working
  • Oral and written communication
  • Multiple approach assessment

Studio Art Degree with a Concentration in Drawing & Painting Highlights

Graduates of our B.F.A. program have been admitted to some of the nation's top graduate programs.
Our faculty members are accomplished artists who are active and respected participants in the professional art world. Each faculty member exhibits artwork nationally and internationally and maintains a high profile in their field.
A Living-Learning Community in UNT Housing brings together art students who live on campus to enhance academic and social experiences.
The construction of the new UNT Art Building was completed in 2019 with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. The Drawing and Painting enjoy a stimulating atmosphere for exploration and growth with intellectual and academic freedom.
We provide many opportunities to exhibit your work as you progress through the program with competitive exhibitions held in the Art Building's Paul Voertman Gallery and Cora Stafford Gallery.

What Can You Do With a Studio Art Degree with a Concentration in Drawing & Painting?

Education — continues in a graduate program. May instruct private lessons or public workshops and classes at colleges, universities, local arts organizations, museums, galleries, community centers, artist residencies, or studios.

Fine Artist — creates and sells artwork to individuals through galleries, private collectors, websites or other digital outlets for a creative career as an artist and entrepreneur.

Commercial Artist — produces art for greeting cards, logos, branding, advertisements, books, magazines and billboards. May work as art director.

Other Areas and Freelance — may work as a muralist, studio assistant, restorationist, portrait artist, face and body painter, tattoo artist, cartoonist, animator, visual display or storyboard creator, illustrator, framer, art handler or work in an auction house.

Overall employment of craft and fine artists is projected to grow 6 percent from 2021 to 2031, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Studio Art Degree with a Concentration in Drawing & Painting Courses You Could Take

Beginning Drawing and Painting: Painting I (3 hrs)
Introduction to painting practices and issues, including the study of methods and materials (oil, acrylic, tools, building of supports and surfaces), composition, value, color, and pictorial space centered on observation. Focuses on the capacities of painting and introduces students to technical and historical issues central to painting.
Beginning Drawing and Painting: Painting II (3 hrs)
Development and expression of a working knowledge of various painting techniques and styles (representation, abstraction, conceptual), through the exploration of compositional dynamics and methods, materials and theories. Study of modern and contemporary issues in painting.
Intermediate Drawing and Painting: Figure Drawing I (3 hrs)
Visual observation of the nude figure and interpretation through various graphic techniques.
Intermediate Drawing and Painting: Experimental Approaches (3 hrs)
Experimental approaches to drawing and painting through stretching, subverting and challenging traditional boundaries. The course is designed to ask questions about what drawing and painting is, explore the conventions of the disciplines and experiment with unfamiliar/unexpected materials, methods, theories and presentations. The focus is on critical exploration of alternative and contemporary means of creating images and enlarge understandings of the disciplines.
Intermediate Drawing and Painting: Themes, Variations and Series (3 hrs)
Exploration of the strategy of the series in drawing and painting to deconstruct, transform, distill, unpack, or otherwise evolve an idea.
Postmodernism and the Visual Arts 1945–Present (3 hrs)
Considers the emergence of “postmodernism” in the visual arts, exploring the development, interpretation, and use of postmodern works, while examining the historical, social, and cultural conditions of “postmodernity” globally, ca. 1945 to the present.

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