with David Ginsberg and Christine Mitzuk

In imaginative art (be it a posthumous portrait or fantasy art) a photo reference is incredibly useful. Your limitations may be funds, space, or having someone to pose for your project. For example, you need to paint an historical picture but only have static head reference, you need to have someone flying but you can't defy the laws of physics, or maybe you need to paint a special effect.

In this workshop we will design pictures by sketching, exploring what's possible through imagination, and then work with a professional photographer to get excellent photo reference based on those plans. The focus will be on visual storytelling, working through compositions, exploring ways to evoke emotion, a sense of time and place or special effects through light/value design in sketches, and character. We will discuss props and costuming. Working with a professional photographer, we will translate the sketches to get excellent photo reference that you can use to complete your picture in your own time.

You'll gain tips and tricks about how to know what kind and how much reference you need. We will cover pictorial as well as legal considerations, what kind of reference is available to artists, and ways to shoot your own reference by either working with a photographer who has the ideal gear, or using what you have available if you have budget and/or time constraints. Questions welcomed!

The first 3 days we will be at The Atelier for the lecture and sketching/planning the pictures. Students will then have 5 days to gather props, costume pieces, and someone to pose (or they can pose themselves).

The following weekend, we will be at David's photo studio for photoshoots based on students' sketches.

• Lecture at The Atelier: Friday, June 5, 9:00am-12:00pm
• Workshop sketch and planning phase: Friday, June 5, 1:00pm-4:00pm, and Saturday–Sunday, 9:00am–4:00pm
• Photo studio phase: Saturday–Sunday, June 13–14, 9:00am–4:00pm.

Enjoying doing quick paintings? Want to increase your painting speed and learn skills to critique your own work? This color study workshop will take students through 5 days of working on their alla prima and shorter study painting skills. The first day students will work on speed and value in black and white. Days two through five we will spend on one-day studies in color. Every day will be a new still life with different objects. It is highly recommended to have some drawing and painting experience, but reach out to the instructor if you have questions about your previous experience.

We will be using only oil paint and a chromatic palette for colors. Still-life objects will include glass, fruit, bones, flowers, fabric, and other colorful and neutral objects. There will be a demonstration by the instructor on Monday, June 8, from 1:00pm – 4:00pm that is open to all students. The demo will cover drawing, blocking in color, edges, and finishing a short piece. With the skills learned in the workshop we want to empower students to paint shorter works on their own and have the basic tools to critique themselves.

Experience our full-time program in a week-long workshop.

Students begin by drawing a plaster cast or still life in charcoal, developing their ability to render accurate proportions and value relationships. As students progress, they are introduced to the fundamentals of oil and/or pastel techniques, composition and color.

Experience our full-time program in a week-long workshop.

Life drawing is at the core of any serious program of fine arts. In the class, students draw from the figure in pencil. Each drawing is created over a period of several sessions, developing the student's eye for accurate proportions, gesture and anatomy.

Andrew Sjodin is a professional painter working in the representational tradition. Along with working as a studio artist, Andrew has also developed a dedicated practice as an instructor, teaching at his alma mater, The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts in Minneapolis, MN, as a core program instructor as well as traveling to teach workshops throughout the United States. Andrew brings over 15 years of painting experience and over a decade of instructional experience to his teaching.

Creating still life paintings has been a major focus of Andrew's career as an artist. His approach to painting attempts to synthesize both a visual/ intuitive as well as an academic/intellectual approach to seeing color, developing form, and telling story. In this five day still life workshop Andrew will be walking students through the entire process of creating a still life—from composing the set-up, to blocking-in, to developing form and color, to finishing.

Each day of the workshop will be split into two three-hour blocks: from 9am to noon Andrew will demonstrate; from 1pm to 4pm Andrew will critique student work. On day one, the morning demo will also include a lecture covering materials, composition, color theory, paint handling, and how to think about the three stages of creating a painting: block-in, development, and finish. Throughout the remainder of the week students will be free to work on their own paintings in the morning session and/ or observe Andrew as he works alongside them. In the afternoon sessions Andrew will work around the room, critiquing individual students, helping them problem solve, and pushing them with new ideas and critical approaches to developing their work.

Drawing the figure is a practice rooted in refining observation, deepening aesthetic judgement, and cultivating a profound understanding of form, light, and movement. Among the most evocative mediums in this pursuit is sanguine—a material employed for centuries by the Old Masters to capture the warmth, vitality, and structure of the human form.

This five-day workshop will explore the principles underpinning the use of sanguine in figure drawing, focusing on its role in both refined figure drawings and serving as a preferred medium for preparatory sketches in painting. We will examine key elements necessary for a successful figure drawing, including the balance between line and mass, the sculptural quality of light and shadow, and the poetic sensibility required to render the figure with elegance and conviction. Additionally, we will study the historical applications of sanguine, its popularity as a medium for preparatory drawings, as well as its continued prominence as a medium for detailed figure drawings. Practical exercises will complement these studies, helping students develop a disciplined and methodical approach to drawing.

Students will work from a live model, progressing from gesture studies to fully realized drawing. Emphasis will be placed on anatomical accuracy, proportion, and a sensitivity to the unique qualities of sanguine as a medium. By the end of the workshop, students will have achieved technical proficiency and developed a deeper understanding of the emotional depth and expressive power that sanguine brings to figure drawing.

The workshop begins with a lecture on the history and development of the academic style, with a focus on the role of sanguine. We will take a look at sanguine drawings by the artists who popularised the material—Tiepolo, Poussin, Watteau, and Rubens. This will be followed by demonstrations on fundamental figure drawing principles and the sight-size method in pencil. Finally, students will be introduced to the unique medium of sanguine, which will be provided for their use.

For ages 15+

This one-week intensive workshop introduces students to basic concepts of drawing from direct observation rather than from a photograph. Students will draw a plaster cast in charcoal, developing their ability to render accurate proportions and value relationships. As students progress, more complex concepts and techniques will be introduced. Instruction will consist of individualized, one-on-one instruction tailored to each student's level and needs. By the end of the course, students will have an increased understanding and confidence in drawing from life.

This is a 3-day weekend workshop where we study ideas and plan pictures that can grab and captivate our audience. We'll be exploring composition through generating copious amounts of thumbnail sketches; refining, changing, and enhancing our ideas through drawing; and, finally, developing a large loose sketch, based on the previous explorative sketches, to take home for a finished painting.

Fundamentals of composition, value, and picture design are stressed throughout. This is where we discover who we are: marks on paper, with the barest minimum of lines, will flush out and flesh out an idea that lingers just beneath our awareness. As students progress from thumbnails to sketches, we'll also touch on when and how to use reference. On the third day Greg will demonstrate color comps, and students will begin to explore rough color sketches to aid them in the development of their picture beyond this workshop.

Much frustration and head-scratching ensues while we struggle to do our best, but Greg hasn't had a student yet that hasn't come away with an epiphany or two about their work. And we'll have lots of fun in the discovery process. Come with no fear—you're in good hands.