Post 1: Designing a course–Artistic Anatomy

This fall I've been asked to teach a course in artistic anatomy at Montserrat College in Beverly, MA, and I am VERY excited.  I've never taught anatomy before but I have a fair amount of teaching experience and I have a good deal of information on the subject... somewhere in my brain. In addition I have a number of resources I've collected over the years—from "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" to "Artistic Anatomy" by Dr. Paul Richer. I have nearly 20 hours of lectures by Robert Beverly Hale on the subject. I have experience from a number of classes I've taken, and countless hours drawing the human figure from imagination and life. I have one other thing that is perhaps most important: a desire for this class to be great for the students.

As I see it there are two ways I could go: I could rip off the format of a class I've taken or I could design something better, more engaging; basically the class I think kids would want to take and would get the most from. 

When I say design, I mean just that. To my mind creating this class is a design problem. Different perhaps from designing a brand identity or an ad campaign, but not so different when you see design as a method instead of a product.

At this point I've only just begun. I'm gathering all the information I can get my hands on, doing some brainstorming and talking to artists to see what their experiences have been—good and bad. I'll post some more about my progress as things unfold.

Wish me luck.