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.

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.

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 by building a deeper understanding of gesture. Christine will coach you through a variety of exercises exploring different ways to see, understand, and capture gesture. By understanding gesture we can bring a sense of life into our drawings, tell a story through body language, or exaggerate it for effect. 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 duration of poses. 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.

Learn practical, essential digital skills for traditional and digital art making. We will not use any generative AI programs. In this class Christine will teach you essential skills she uses for her digital and traditional art making. You will learn the important difference between color modes for art made for print and screen, dimensions and resolution, “frankensteining” your reference, how to use a pencil drawing for digital painting, digitally alter a drawing to explore composition, how to enlarge and prep a pencil drawing to use to transfer for a painting, digital brushes, and more. About a week before the class, registrants will receive access to download the class files.

We will use Adobe Photoshop (the Photography plan should be sufficient. Be sure you understand their billing and cancellation terms) and AffinityPhoto (which is free through Canva).

Some technical assistance will be available. The class does not include any software or hardware.

Requirements:

• some drawing experience
• must be familiar with navigating and using your device
• must have your own laptop that can handle Photoshop (an iPad or similar may be used but please note, only assistance with Photoshop or AffinityPhoto will be available, not device tech help. Christine does not use iPad.)
• have a touchscreen laptop with a pen OR laptop with an external pressure sensitive tablet with pen like a Wacom Intuos or Intuos Pro. A mouse is NOT recommended.
• be able to connect to the internet using The Atelier's Wi-Fi

Christine Mitzuk has been using Photoshop since the mid 90s, first as a student at the U of MN, then through her graphic design career. She continues to use it as a professional artist and illustrator as part of her traditional painting process and for digital paintings.

This nine-week evening class is designed for slightly advanced artists interested in sustained portrait study. Students will work from a live model, focusing on comparative drawing to strengthen proportion, structure, and likeness.

Participants will develop one drawing or painting over the full nine weeks, working with the same model throughout the session. Emphasis is placed on careful observation, disciplined studio practice, and individual growth.

Prior drawing or painting experience recommended.