Studio unit · 8 weeks
Art runs this unit. History and literature feed the studio. Writing is wall labels, captions, and one artist statement at the end. Odyssey excerpts at dinner, one at a time. Eight weeks, plus two grace weeks if you slide.
Week 1 · Sept 1–7, 2026 · dates flex
Design your own symbol system in clay or Sculpey. Research cuneiform, who had seals, and Hammurabi’s preamble. Finish the seal plus a 50-word wall label.
Read the preamble aloud once before you start carving. Then jump to the full Week 1 card.
Studio rule
Art is the organizing principle. Read for the idea that gets you to the table.
Odyssey excerpts at dinner. One at a time.
Eight studio weeks. Two grace weeks if the calendar slides.
On the shelf
Due at the end
Stores: Blick, Michaels, Amazon, or any craft store. Costs are ranges.
Core toolkit
Consumables + specials
Weekly consumables subtotal: ~$63–95. One big buy of toolkit + consumables: ~$130–200. Or stage it: toolkit now, each week’s consumables the week before. Scavenge first — check what you already own.
Reference images
Print at home or at a copy shop.
Each card is one studio week. The numbers at the top jump you here.
Week 1 · Sept 1–7
Clay or Sculpey. Design your symbol system. Research: cuneiform, who had seals, Hammurabi preamble.
Writing: your seal + a 50-word wall label.
Supplies: Sculpey 1 lb, carving tools, black ink pad.
Print: cylinder seal examples (British Museum).
Read: Bauer Ch. 1 pp. 10–16 + Ch. 22 pp. 170–177; Strickland ch. 1. Skim for the idea. Check pagination against your copy (editions differ).
“When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk... the Enlil-ship over the whole world... then Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak... to enlighten the land and to further the well-being of mankind.”
Hammurabi’s Code, preamble · L.W. King, 1915 · public domain
Week 2 · Sept 8–14
Art: ziggurat in forced perspective. Technical drawing. Lighter load than Week 1: studio research for a drawing, not a finished gallery piece.
Writing: sketchbook margin notes beside the drawing. Informal. No wall label this week.
Supplies: core toolkit only. Print ziggurat reference photos before you start.
How to draw:
Print ziggurat refs still help (Ur / Babylon).
Advanced (two-point perspective): City street in two-point perspective. Buildings, not a ziggurat. You can still apply the same vanishing-point ideas to the stepped tower.
Watch:
Read (same two books as Week 1; skim for the ideas below):
Primary source: Herodotus on the Ziggurat of Babylon (Histories Book 1, §181–183). Fifth-century BC Greek historian; the most famous ancient description of a ziggurat (the temple complex of Bel). Summary: a stepped tower in eight tiers, each set back from the one below; a spiral ramp around the outside; a shrine at the top with a golden couch and table, tended by priests, where a god was said to visit.
Read the wording here (public domain):
The drawing point: a ziggurat is an argument in stone that the gods and the state are the same thing, visible from every point in the city.
Week 3 · Sept 15–21
Art: Egyptian palette re-imagined. Copy the Narmer Palette’s composition, or invent a personal myth in the same visual language (registers, scale hierarchy, crowns, smiting pose). Heavier studio load than Week 2: paint on board, gold accents, finished piece.
Writing: the palette plus a 75-word artist note. Wall-label voice.
Supplies: acrylic or gouache paint set; fine brushes; gold metallic marker; flat panel (illustration board or foam board). Core toolkit for sketching first.
Print: Narmer Palette, full and high-res, both faces if you can find them.
How to:
Read (skim for the ideas below):
Primary source: Book of the Dead creation excerpt (Atum / Tem / Ra). Summary: the creator rises from the primeval waters of Nu as the Only One, names himself into being, and rules what he has made. Pharaoh’s authority sits inside that cosmic story.
Read the wording here (public domain):
Museum ref: Egyptian Museum Cairo · Narmer Palette (original); British Museum holds casts.
The studio point: a palette is an argument that kingship and creation share one visual grammar.
Week 4 · Sept 22–28
Art: Greek kouros figure study on 18×24. Work from a printed statue. Measure a grid or head-count canon before you commit to contour. Load is medium: one careful figure, not a painted board.
Writing: the figure plus a short caption (what changed when the body stopped being pure Egyptian type?).
Supplies: core toolkit plus the 18×24 pad. Ruler for the grid.
Print: kouros statue reference (Met New York Kouros, or an Acropolis Museum kouros).
How to:
Read (skim for the ideas below):
Primary source: Herodotus, Histories Book 2, §91. Summary: Egyptians generally refuse Greek customs, yet at Khemmis they celebrate athletic contests “of every form” in Greek fashion, with prizes, around an image of Perseus. The passage is about Greek athletic culture crossing into Egypt, not a sculptor’s treatise. Use it for the athletic body the kouros assumes.
Read the wording here (public domain):
Museum ref: Met · Marble kouros (32.11.1).
The studio point: a kouros is a measured argument that the human body can be both rule and living weight.
Week 5 · Sept 29 – Oct 5
Art: personal mythology on Greek pottery. Draw an amphora (or another vessel shape) in black-figure or red-figure logic: silhouette vs reserved figure, banded registers, one clear myth moment. Process sketches count; finish one pot face.
Writing: process sketches plus a pot label (what scene, which side, why that technique).
Supplies: red and black quality colored pencils (Prismacolor or Faber-Castell); optional brown-toned paper; compass for amphora curves; Micron for fine incision-like lines.
Print: amphora shapes plus black-figure and red-figure examples.
How to:
Read (skim for the ideas below):
Primary source: Homer, Odyssey Book 9. Summary: Odysseus lands among the Cyclopes, blinds Polyphemus with craft and wine, escapes under the rams, then names himself and draws Poseidon’s curse. A perfect pot scene: cave, stake, “Noman,” the naming.
Read the wording here (public domain):
The studio point: black-figure and red-figure are two ways of arguing which part of the story is solid ground and which is empty space.
Week 6 · Oct 6–12
Art: Parthenon plus deliberate anachronism. Draw the west pediment / exterior from a print, then place a modern figure on the steps (phone, backpack, skateboard, whatever belongs to you). The clash is the point.
Writing: the drawing plus 100-word wall text.
Supplies: core toolkit; optional light blue or grey paper for sky contrast.
Print: Parthenon exterior, west pediment preferred.
How to:
Read (skim for the ideas below):
Primary source: Pericles’ Funeral Oration (Thucydides, Peloponnesian War Book 2.34–46). Summary: after the first war dead, Pericles praises Athens as a pattern, a democracy that favors the many, a city whose power leaves monuments, and asks the living to love the city by looking at it daily.
Read the wording here (public domain):
Museum / architecture ref: British Museum Parthenon galleries (sculptures) plus any clear west-elevation photo for the steps.
The studio point: the Parthenon is a civic argument in marble; your anachronism tests whether that argument still holds when a living body climbs the stairs.
Week 7 · Oct 13–19
Art: Roman mosaic floor plan. Family mythology or an Odyssey scene, built from paper tesserae on a flat base. Think floor, not wall painting: border, central emblem, limited palette.
Writing: the mosaic plus a 75-word label.
Supplies: colored paper packs (construction paper or cardstock: blue, green, yellow, brown, red, cream); flat base (wood panel or foam board); Mod Podge and sponge brushes from the core toolkit; compass for round emblems.
Print: Roman mosaic floor examples from Pompeii or Herculaneum.
How to:
Read (skim for the ideas below):
Primary source: Plutarch, Life of Romulus chapter 13. Summary: Romulus divides the people into patrons and clients; patrons advise and speak in court; clients honor and aid their patrons; neither may testify against the other. The household and the city run on that bond.
Read the wording here (public domain):
The studio point: a mosaic floor is patronage underfoot. Guests walk your family’s story.
Week 8 · Oct 20–26
Art: curated portfolio. Six finished pieces with historical labels. Mount flat work on cardboard backings; sleeve fragile pieces. Sequence the room as a walk from seal to mosaic (or your own order, if you can defend it).
Writing: one-page artist statement. The unit’s only sustained prose. How did each civilization shape your choices of material, scale, and story?
Supplies: portfolio folder or 3-ring binder with page protectors; cardboard backings for flat mount. No new print refs this week.
Read (review, do not sprint):
Companion link (optional, public domain):
No long primary source required this week. Your six labels plus the statement are the text.
The studio point: curation is an argument about which ancient visual habits you kept, and which you refused.