Art Majors and Minors

Art Education students may complete the coursework required for K-12 teacher licensure. Art Educators at Otterbein meet Art Major requirements in studio and art history, and present a senior exhibition of their work. Visits to a variety of schools in the greater Columbus area provide a thorough preparation for a career in art education. See the Department of Education site for more information about licensure programs at Otterbein. We offer art minors in arts administration, art history, and studio art.

The ceramics program at Otterbein University offers you the opportunity to explore a variety of themes and ideas in ceramics. You explore ceramic form in both a sculptural and vessel format, allowing you to discover your own interests and develop your own personal style. Students in ceramics learn about history of ceramics and ceramic form while exploring contemporary approaches, practices and themes.

While discovering your style, you will also delve into material knowledge through hands-on experience such as glaze calculation and various types of kiln firing techniques. Students use an array of tools and techniques, including gas and electric kilns for low-fire and high-fire applications, raku kiln, wheel throwing, hand building, and ceramic material calculation and formulation.

Communication Design is art in service to ideas and action. It is art that knows that communication is relevant. Graphic designers bring together the disparate elements of ideas, shapes, textures, colors, images and words. The study of all fine arts informs the design process.

Otterbein's liberal arts structure ultimately prepares you to adapt to an ever-changing world.As a Communication Design major, you will build the necessary foundation to challenge existing attitudes and create new methods by which our society visually communicates. There is no mold, set of standards, or software program to which you must conform. One acquires knowledge through intense research and exploration, hard work and self-discipline. Foundations are developed early using pencil and paper, pen and ink, and an open mind. You will begin acquiring typographic skills by constructing letterforms by hand - a process that informs "visual dynamic" literacy.

Once you develop good typography skills, assignments begin incorporating image manipulation, computer production and output. Many of the challenges undertaken in class are design solutions for clients in the Columbus area. These opportunities introduce class competition, client/designer work relationships, monetary compensation and actual experience. Reference to the history of Communication Design is expressed in many assignments. This informs the creative process and avoids "reinventing the wheel."

You will spend your senior year completing a portfolio to be presented in both traditional and electronic formats. The portfolio will include class assignments, actual client work and a self-promotion piece in the form of a book.

Intermediate Drawing
Intermediate drawing emphasizes drawing from the human figure. You will work with a variety of drawing materials and are introduced to rendering techniques that involve development of line, form, and color.

In-class studies based on observation of the model include anatomical studies, proportion, and movement. These observational studies serve to give you confidence in working with the figure and a range of drawing processes. The ability to work with these materials and render the human figure are applied to more conceptual projects throughout the term.

You will be introduced to project assignments through slide lectures and videos which cover the use of the figure throughout history. You will research figurative traditions from global cultures and are asked to incorporate these elements in drawing projects.

Group critiques, sketchbook and writing assignments are integral to your understanding the creative process of the contemporary artist and approaches to drawing. Field trips, visiting artist lectures and gallery talks offer you a broad range of ideas in the development of their personal vision.

Advanced Drawing
Advanced drawing emphasizes the individual development of your personal vision and expression in drawing. This dedicated time and space offers you an opportunity to apply the conceptual and technical skills developed in previous course work.
You will explore a variety of media and methods based on personal interests determined after consultation with the instructor. Traditional and alternative methods in drawing are presented to the advanced student through slide lectures, videos and gallery or museum visits.

You will choose specific methods and approaches to apply to a series of works for your final project. Writing assignments and individual and group discussions encourage you to develop critical thinking, writing and verbal skills.

Otterbein offers a concentration in Integrated Digital Media. The Department of Art offers three courses in Integrated Digital Media: Beginning, Time-Based Media and Interdisciplinary Studio.
Otterbein’s Integrated Digital Media (IDM) concentration strives to produce innovative artists who aren’t afraid to experiment and push the boundaries of art.

You will explore art with an approach that blurs the line between image-based, time-based and traditional mediums in the context of contemporary art. The program challenges you to combine your varied academic and personal interests in projects that embrace the future of art - video, digital-imaging, sound art, installation art and the creation of alternative exhibition venues. You will learn the technical and theoretical aspects of contemporary art through research and creative projects such as experimental video documentaries, digital imaging, social media and readings on theory and art history.

We recognize technology as an integral part of our daily lives and have created two well-equipped Macintosh Labs for you to explore new and emerging forms of art. You will have access to high-definition video cameras, portable sound recorders and large-format inkjet printers.

Technical instruction and conceptual assignments challenge students to examine traditional and nontraditional models of imagery conveyed by art history and popular culture. Students build on prior art experiences in drawing, sculpture and photography to develop form and content of individual work.

This concentration uses computers, scanners, ink jet printers, video cameras, and sound recorders as tools in art making, and encourages students to make critical decisions regarding content. Upon graduation successful students possess a strong understanding of visual culture with the ability to place their work within the various contexts of contemporary art.

Painting classes at Otterbein provide you with basic knowledge of the tools, materials, and techniques used in various painting media.

Classes build upon the foundations gained in 2-D Design and Drawing. The course emphasis is upon fundamental principles of visual organization and composition in painting, vitality and personal expressiveness, and upon disciplined, committed interaction between the artist and the work in process. A series of assigned painting projects along with individually selected painting problems help you develop painting skills. Instructors will work with you one-on-one, as well as in group critiques.

Additional components of painting classes include keeping a sketchbook, writing an artist's statement, viewing videos about artists, and studying slides of art historical examples. Painting classes are augmented by field trips, museum visits, exhibitions and talks by visiting artists. Recently, students have benefited from visits by international artists-in-residence.

The Department of Art offers courses in beginning, intermediate, and advanced photography. The beginning and intermediate courses focus on the development of technical and creative skills in black and white photography. The focus of the advanced course rotates annually between The Fine Print, Color, and Alternate Photographic Approaches.

Through content-based assignments and final portfolio projects followed by group and individual critiques, you are presented with a strong foundation in the technical and aesthetic aspects of the medium.

An emphasis is also placed on visual awareness: the ability to see perceptively and to translate that perception into expressive photographs. You are also encouraged to express their visual ideas in written form through artist statements and personal journals.

Faculty regularly present slide and video lecture material on the History of Photography, concentrating on 19th and early 20th century in the beginning class, the 1920s through the 1960s in intermediate, and 1970s to contemporary in the advanced course. Field trips to local galleries and museums, and lectures by visiting artists offer you the opportunity to see original photographic work. Through on-campus exhibitions, the Art Department is developing a substantial Permanent Teaching Collection of 20th century photographs.

Printmaking students link their creative ideas to intaglio and relief processes. Print content is determined by your personal creative interests.

You will learn etching, drypoint, aquatint, linocut, woodcut, and collagraph techniques, and are introduced to a variety of tools for creating plates and blocks. Japanese and European papers are used in both hand-printing and on an intaglio press. Sketchbooks play an important role in helping you to identify the appropriate process for a particular print project.

Portfolios of professional artists' prints are viewed in class. A range of critique approaches is employed to help you produce the strongest possible images.

The class culminates in the completion of print portfolios that reflect your interests and your mastery of printmaking techniques.

Sculpture is taught in a studio-based course where you will develop skills in figure modeling, model making, glass casting, wood fabrication, plaster work on armature, subtractive surface development and conceptual project presentation.

In small classes, you will develop personal solutions to problems. Close interaction with an instructor and your peers provides for ongoing lively discussion.

The sculpture studio is equipped with large sturdy surfaces; hand and power tools for wood working; a computer-controlled annealer for glass and ceramic casting, and a wide range of materials for multi-media design.

The Arts Administration minor is an interdisciplinary course of study preparing students for work and engagement in arts organizations and creative industries. Arts administrators create connections between art and community; as a discipline Arts Administration primarily encompasses non-profit or public organizations. Arts administrators require skills in business and communication as well as deep knowledge in an area of the Arts.

As a field of study, arts administration therefore combines coursework in the Arts and Humanities with business, policy, and communication. The Arts Administration minor promotes Otterbein University’s mission and liberal arts focus through this interdisciplinary approach.

The discipline of Art History engages in the analysis of contemporary and historical visual and material cultures. The Art History minor at Otterbein University encourages students to explore the production, function, and meaning of the visual arts in cultures across time and place and to consider the value and significance of cultural heritage. As a discipline within the Humanities, Art History supports the mission of the college by furthering a commitment to the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to becoming a responsible global citizen.

The Studio Art minor at Otterbein University provides students in other majors the opportunity to pursue their interest in art study and practice at a level that complements and enhances their other academic pursuits. Students in the Studio Arts take 4 studio art courses of their choice (one in the foundations art series) and one Art History course of their choice.