Pre-College Courses

In this exciting and expressive course, students will focus on developing a narrative and a “model sheet” for custom characters. Students will dive into concept development, research, acting for illustrators, visual style & shape language, anatomy for artists, professional presentation, drawing, and digital painting.

Instructor: Jason Bennett

This class is an introduction to 2D animation using the grease pencil tool within the free and cross-platform program Blender. Students will learn the basic concepts of animation, including creating characters, making backgrounds, and finalizing in editing software. Each student will make an animated short from beginning to end from a story or idea that they’ve chosen.

Instructor: Jared Duesterhaus

Make your college application portfolio stand out with ceramic art! This class will focus on developing a well-rounded portfolio by teaching students to build ceramic work using multiple building techniques. Students will learn traditional and boundary-pushing methods of working with clay. They will learn to throw pottery on the wheel, coil-build figures, slab-build sculptures, slip cast into vintage molds and print their own forms using a ceramic 3D printer. Toward the end of the course, students will learn how to professionally photograph their work with backdrops, lighting, and basic photo editing. Students will leave this course with unique additions to their portfolio and experience in a studio class.

Instructor: Rice (Beatrice) Evans

This introductory Graphic Design course will use the lens of literacy to structure its 3 weeks, with each week focusing on a different approach of literacy: traditional, media, and cultural. Students will engage in readings and critical discussions. They will create three respective projects based off of these reflections: a zine, a social media intervention, and a poster.

Instructor: Bradley Sinanan

In this immersive class, students will be introduced to the fundamentals of filmmaking, from concept to completion. Participants will explore every stage of digital film production, including scriptwriting, storyboarding, directing, camera operation, lighting, sound, and editing. Through hands-on workshops and collaborative projects, students gain practical skills and creative confidence, culminating in the production of their own short film. The class emphasizes storytelling, teamwork, and technical proficiency, offering a supportive environment for young filmmakers to express their unique voices and prepare for future studies in film or media arts. Students are required to have their own DSLR or mirrorless camera with full manual control capabilities.

Instructor: TBD

This course is an exciting exploration of contemporary editorial, portrait, and fashion photography. Tailored for aspiring photographers, the program combines technical training with creative exploration to help students develop their unique visual style. Through workshops, guided photoshoots, and critiques, participants learn essential skills in lighting, composition, editing, and working with professional-grade equipment to create portfolios that will prepare them for future studies in photography or media arts. Students will expand their artistic perspectives and experiment with storytelling techniques used in today’s editorial and fashion photography. Students are required to have their own DSLR or mirrorless camera with full manual control capabilities.

Instructor: TBD

This class is an immersive three-week course focusing on the essential skills of two-dimensional portfolio development. This course includes both drawing and design principles. Students will develop and strengthen observational drawing skills, including figure drawing. Students will also learn color and design theory. Projects include still life drawing, figure drawing from models, micron pen, acrylic painting, and collage. Students will also learn techniques for professionally documenting work to ensure a strong portfolio presentation.

Instructor: Brian Barr

In this course, students will learn the fundamentals of video and audio editing, and they will use these skills to create multimedia artworks. Time based media offers a vessel to hold story, collage, documentary filmmaking, and abstraction. The class will engage with histories of video art, performance, sound, and video projections and installation. The course culminates in student projects with the potential to span physical and digital worlds.

Instructor: Caleb Flood

Students will learn about fashion design, design principles, and the business of fashion. The scope of work will include mood and concept, fashion illustration, design creation, and merchandising. Students will gain an understanding of how designers bring their designs to life through pattern-making, sewing, and construction of original designs. Students will use CLO 3D, a design software, to visualize fashion design on avatars, while viewing and manipulating the flat design pattern in 2D. The various segments of the fashion business and careers in the fashion industry will be explored. Activities include a line development project based on digital fashion research, an inspiration board, and promoting fashion videos via social media.

Instructor: TBD

In this course, students will become familiar with the complex language of comics and learn to craft, revise, develop, and produce a fully-realized work in sequential form. Students will work with both images and words. They will learn how to structure a page and create a clear reading path through panel layout and placement through pacing, editing, and scene transitions. Students will explore character development, model sheets, and world building while developing imagery within their unique visual language and voice.

Instructor: Kelly Adler

This introductory Graphic Design course will examine the methods, materials, and language involved in creating and manipulating graphic form. Students will be introduced to the fundamental practices of design and learn to connect the processes of making with the meanings of their creations. The course will focus on various methodologies and tools that emphasize the importance of process through play, iteration, and risk-taking.

Instructor: TBD

The introductory course will provide an opportunity to work on audition, callback, rehearsal, and performance technique in a practical way, as well as acting, singing, and dancing foundation techniques. Students will execute and analyze song selections from Jazz Age musical theatre (1920’s-1940’s), Golden Age musical theatre (1940’s-1970’s), contemporary musical theatre (late 1990’s-present), Disney musicals, and a deep dive into the work of Stephen Sondheim (1970’s-the early 00’s). The class will culminate in a showcase performance of songs performed in class. This course provides fun and exciting ways to learn different elements of musical theatre and what students would learn more about in a college setting.

Instructor: Desiree Dabney

This class will introduce students to developing narratives that interact between commercial and fine art. Using gouache paint, this course will be broken into three sections: illustration, figure drawing, and concept art. For illustration, students will learn to develop a character and scene, as well as how to use composition, light, and shadow to create a mood. For figure drawing, students will develop traditional drawing techniques for rendering the human form. For concept art, students will develop original characters within environments that communicate time and develop color theory. Throughout the course, students will develop a portfolio that shows a variety of narrative works. Students will also look at the work of professional portfolios from artists working in both commercial and fine art fields.

Instructor: Andrew Norris

In this immersive studio-intensive, students will cultivate the skills necessary to create expressive, portfolio-ready 3D works. This is a unique opportunity for students to explore sculptural techniques and perspectives typically unavailable in high school settings. Students will investigate the intricate connections between form, space, material, and meaning within both contemporary and historical contexts. They will engage in a broad range of conceptual approaches, construction methods, and hands-on work with materials such as clay, wire, paper, fabric, and more.

Instructor: Nyasha Madamombe

Learn to create an imaginative world of your own design filled with characters, environments, and stories for video games pulled from the pages of your sketchbook. In Sketchcraft, students learn to translate their everyday adventures into ones filled with imaginative creatures, characters, and environments. Students will work with acclaimed illustrator, concept artist, sketchbook enthusiast, and VCU Communication Arts Professor Sterling Hundley to explore Richmond’s James River Park System and unique urban areas to develop their ideas into personal storytelling and learn to see the world around them as an open world filled with endless inspiration for the games, films, and comics they want to create. Students will leave the course with a sketchbook filled with observational drawings and understand a clear process of how to develop these ideas into immersive environments, engaging characters, and authentic stories.

Instructor: Sterling Hundley

Students will be immersed in exploring the world of fiber art and textile design. This course will be an all-out fiber bonanza, which will include learning the basics of embroidery, quilting, dyeing, and screen printing. Through exploration of pattern, color, texture, and composition, students will create a series of 2D fiber-based works that showcase their skill and artistic voice. Emphasizing both craftsmanship and conceptual development, the course will include discussions on contemporary and historic textile art, grounding them in the longstanding traditions of the discipline, while empowering them with knowledge and confidence to continue creating independently.

Instructor: Aleckxi Dorhofer