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.

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.

One-day still-life studies

This class will be focused on one-day oil studies of still lifes in color. The student will begin each class with a quick 20-minute sketch of the still life in paint. The remainder of the day will be focused on color mixing, application, and manipulation of paint on the canvas using brushes or palette knives. Each week will be a new still-life setup in order to study new textures, colors and shapes. Studies, especially done in color paint, are the basis of all finished works. This class attempts to give the student more confidence in applying paint to a surface, relieving the fear of making mistakes in paint by making those mistakes and then correcting them. Only through experimentation with application of paint on the canvas do we learn to create different effects. We will also focus on quick adjustments to value, color, and drawing with differing brushes and mixing color on the palette or directly on the canvas. Some experience in drawing is recommended as much of the class will be in paint application and not perfection of drawing skills. All levels are welcome! This class will not be focused on completing a refined, finished piece but for practice, exploration and fun! This class will use only oil paint and not other mediums. Email Cassandra Ronning at cassandra.ronning@gmail.com for questions and suggested supply list.

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. This class blends The Atelier and Studio Arts figure study methods. Christine coaches students through a variety of exercises to explore different ways to see, understand, and capture gesture. By understanding gesture we can incorporate 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. 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.