There is something timeless about the style of the Golden Age of Illustration - Beatrix Potter, Jessie Wilcox Smith - that feels both nostalgic and incredibly skillful. Inspired by the timeless charm of classic children's illustrators, this course teaches students how to transform personal memories into works of art. Using their own photos, students will learn the foundational techniques required to create soulful, accurate portraits and scenes.

• classical drawing: mastermind proportions and seeing like an artist
• the painter's palette: advanced color mixing and wash techniques
• depth and dimension: understanding light, shadow, and value to make drawings "pop"

Life drawing is at the core of any serious program of fine arts. In these classes, students draw from the figure in pencil, charcoal, including an option of painting. Each drawing or painting is created over a period of sessions, developing the student’s eye for accurate gesture, proportions, and anatomy. With a single sustained pose, students will have the option of either taking one drawing/painting to a high degree of finish or completing several drawings from different positions around the model.

In this 9-week course, you will complete one or multiple paintings using a photo reference of your choice. We will discuss how to use classical painting techniques and principles to produce quality results in situations when working from life is not possible. Topics will include: selecting reference material, composition, paint handling, color, as well as any questions that you bring to the class! We will also outline strategies for finishing paintings within an established time frame, including the option for faster one- or two-day projects. Students will bring their own painting supplies in oil, acrylic, or gauche, as well as a quality printed reference photo. All experience levels are welcome!

Students begin by drawing a plaster cast in charcoal, developing their ability to render accurate proportions and value relationships. After students finish a charcoal cast drawing, they are introduced to the fundamentals of oil techniques in grisaille, paint handling, and modeling form. Once this has been achieved, students may progress to still-life painting in oil, working on values, color relationships and composition.

The most crucial part of any artwork is its preliminary stages. In this class, Sawyer will emphasize the most necessary of these stages: the block-in. The goal for this class will be describing the figure as efficiently—and accurately—as possible. Through a series of demonstrations, explanations, optional assignments, and primarily model time, students will be eased into complex topics. Gesture, rhythm, proportions, shape simplification, structure, and notan statements will be discussed and practiced in an approachable manner. There will be no intimidating rendering. This is the meat and potatoes of drawing!

Students will be introduced to the pencil and its first mark, the line. Students will be restricted to the line for most of the class. Several line qualities will be demonstrated, from thin and sharp, to broad and soft. Students will be restricted to a line quality in between—a firm line that is made with the dulled tip of a pencil. Students will then be presented to the concept of gesture.

Students begin by drawing a plaster cast in charcoal, developing their ability to render accurate proportions and value relationships. After students finish a charcoal cast drawing, they are introduced to the fundamentals of oil techniques in grisaille, paint handling, and modeling form. Once this has been achieved, students may progress to still-life painting in oil, working on values, color relationships and composition.

Breathe life into your figure drawings and gain a deeper understanding of gesture. Christine will coach you through a variety of exercises exploring different ways to see, understand, and capture gesture. Through gesture we can bring a sense of life into our drawings, evoke emotion, tell a story through body language. We will be studying gesture from the nude figure. This class blends The Atelier and Studio Arts figure study methods. Throughout the course, there will be a variety of models and pose lengths. Experimentation of materials will be discussed and encouraged.

Students begin by drawing a plaster cast in charcoal, developing their ability to render accurate proportions and value relationships. After students finish a charcoal cast drawing, they are introduced to the fundamentals of oil techniques in grisaille, paint handling, and modeling form. Once this has been achieved, students may progress to still-life painting in oil, working on values, color relationships and composition.