Introduction to Drawing: Rendering Light
March 3 – March 24, 2026 | 1:30–4 p.m.
Location: High Museum of Art, Green Workshop, Greene Family Education Center
Registration Required
Members get first access! Not a member? Join today!
The registration fee includes all materials, weekly access to world-class art in the museum’s galleries, hours of expert instruction, and access to a Friday afternoon Open Studio during the run of the class.
Not-Yet-Members
$250
Registration opens to the public on December 3, 2025 at 10 a.m.
The registration fee includes all materials, weekly access to world-class art in the museum’s galleries, hours of expert instruction, and access to a Friday afternoon Open Studio during the run of the class.
Learn to see, consider, and render light in your drawings. Study value and tone across objects including glass, metal, and cloth, and practice different techniques to heighten contrast and convey illumination. Through demonstrations, exercises, and the close study of works in the museum’s collection, gain confidence in capturing the relationships between shadow and light, and gain confidence in creating convincing forms with a variety of drawing materials.
- Week 1: Begin by exploring how light and value define form. Learn to accurately map light direction, and practice creating value scales and light studies using a white object under a single light source.
- Week 2: Study glass and reflective surfaces to understand transparency, reflection, and refraction. Work from still lifes featuring glass and mirrored objects, and practice emphasizing edges and highlights.
- Week 3: Compare the effects of soft and hard light on cloth and metal. Create compositions combining drapery and reflective objects while studying chiaroscuro transitions.
- Week 4: Apply all learned techniques in a final still-life composition that unites glass, cloth, metal, and organic forms. Focus on how lighting creates mood and directs attention. We will conclude our time together with finished drawings, a reflection on our work, and a conversation about what we have learned.
About Studio Classes
Expand your art-making skills through guided, step-by-step instruction with expert teaching artists. Over multiple weeks, you will learn alongside other creative adults and delve deeply into the artistic process, explore new techniques, and build your practice.
This is an introductory-level Studio Class; it is designed to accommodate all levels of skill and talent. If you have never taken an art making class before, this is a great place to start. You will learn new skills that you can use in your artistic practice.
The registration fee includes all materials, weekly access to world-class art in the museum’s galleries, hours of expert instruction, and access to a Friday afternoon Open Studio during the run of the class.
About your Instructor
Jaffia Royes is a visual artist and art educator who lived and worked in New York City for seventeen years before moving to Atlanta. As an educator, she has worked with various art organizations, museums, and schools and has taught artists of all ages, including portfolio development for those entering art and design colleges and universities. While Royes’s primary medium for over two decades has been oil painting, she began developing a body of work in clay as a creative way to house her ever-growing plant collection. Her passions for art and plant life allow space for her to practice mindfulness, serenity, and self-care, which she brings into the classroom and hopes to encourage through her teaching.
Please note that in the event of a session being canceled, March 31 is reserved as a makeup date.
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