OPU CSAA: End of Week 1 Reflection and Curriculum Updates

The first official week of the Open Path University Creative Studies Associate program is now complete.

Overall, the week was a success. The goal was never to produce polished masterpieces in the first seven days. Instead, the focus was on establishing habits, learning fundamentals, and determining what parts of the curriculum worked best in practice.

As expected, a few adjustments were made during the week. These changes are not significant enough to require a restart of the program. Instead, they represent the natural process of refining a living curriculum. One of the advantages of building an independent course of study is the ability to adapt when something isn't serving the intended purpose.

Curriculum Changes

Art Appreciation Added

Beginning in Week 2, I will be adding 1-2 hours per week of Art Appreciation study.

My current resource is The Great Courses series on art history and appreciation, but the specific source is less important than the goal. Whether you use Great Courses, Alison, YouTube, TED Talks, museum lectures, or another educational resource, the purpose is to learn how to look at artwork with an artist's eye.

Questions such as:

• Why does this piece work?

• How is the composition guiding the viewer?

• What choices did the artist make?

• How do color, value, shape, and storytelling interact?

Learning to create art is important. Learning to analyze art is equally important.

Friday Challenges Replaced

The original Friday "Challenges" have been replaced with DrawABox.

This change provides a more structured approach to foundational drawing skills and removes some ambiguity about what those challenges should contain. DrawABox offers a curated progression of exercises focused on line confidence, perspective, form construction, and spatial thinking.

Going forward, my primary drawing resources will be:

• Ctrl+Paint

• DrawABox

• Daily observation drawing

These three elements complement one another well. Ctrl+Paint teaches artistic concepts and technique, DrawABox develops draftsmanship and construction skills, and observation drawing trains the ability to truly see.

Photography Studies Added

Photography is also becoming a more deliberate part of the curriculum.

Beginning this week, I will spend approximately 30-60 minutes per week studying photography fundamentals alongside the daily photo assignments already built into the program.

The goal is not professional photography. The goal is learning composition, framing, lighting, visual storytelling, and observation. These skills translate directly into drawing, painting, illustration, and design.

Writing Course Adjustment

The original creative writing course selected through Alison was no longer available.

Rather than spending excessive time searching for a perfect replacement, I switched to an essay-writing course already available on the platform.

While not creative writing, it still develops valuable skills:

• Organizing ideas

• Building arguments

• Clear communication

• Structured thinking

At this stage of the program, developing writing fundamentals is more important than finding the perfect specialized course.

Week 1 Observations

One lesson became apparent very quickly: everything right now is about fundamentals.

The drawings are fundamentals.

The photography is fundamentals.

The writing is fundamentals.

The journal pages are fundamentals.

Even the art appreciation studies are fundamentals.

It can be tempting to rush toward finished paintings, polished stories, or portfolio pieces. However, the strongest creative work is built on thousands of small observations and repetitive exercises that are often invisible to the audience.

This week included:

• Observation photography

• Observation drawing

• Line and ellipse practice

• Pencil control exercises

• Journal page creation

• Essay study

• Daily creative habit building

None of these activities are flashy. All of them matter.

Looking Ahead

Week 2 will continue building those same foundations while adding Art Appreciation studies and a more formal photography component.

The curriculum is still evolving, but the direction is becoming clearer every day.

The objective remains unchanged:

To build a well-rounded education in art, writing, visual storytelling, and creative practice using freely available or low-cost resources, while documenting the entire process publicly so others can adapt it to fit their own goals.

The exact resources may differ from person to person.

The fundamentals do not.

See you in Week 2.