Creativity and Composition

Schedule for Winter – Spring – Fall 2024
Schedule for Summer 2024

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Let's face it; you probably became an artist because you have visual ideas bursting inside you. And if you've taken some of our other classes, you've developed the skills to realize your dreams. Why wait to share them with the world?

At this point, what you really need most is a nurturing mentor with a track record of realized images, who creates a safe, judgment-free workspace where you can loosen up, have fun and play. Come to our Creativity and Composition class and experience a positive, relaxed environment that will help you bring your most precious and inspired thoughts to artistic fruition.

Explore your creativity by developing an imaginative picture based upon an existing story that you select, or an idea that you originate. Work at your own pace to learn the time-honored steps of the creative, visual process – from idea generation, through preparatory work, to completed project. Emphasis will be placed on storytelling through composition and character development, as well as how color theory enhances visual communication. Students choose to work in the medium with which they are comfortable. We have experience to support pencil, charcoal, pen and ink, colored pencil, watercolor, egg tempura, and oils.

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Drawing and Painting from the Live Model

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The basis of traditional Western Art education centers upon learning how to draw the figure well, and that is the focus of these classes. Lectures are given on subjects including – recommended reading, materials, anatomy, aesthetics, indirect versus direct painting methods, and a reasonable breakdown of drawing and painting stages to complete finished work based on historic precedence.

The course stresses the importance of a Sensible Start and clarifies how to balance Unity and Variety throughout the complex Middle Stage of a picture, yet also emphasizes the significance of a Unified Finish to create a poetic, artistic statement. Repeat the class to learn how to combine studies and memory work so much of your extended figure can be completed away from the model.

Students in all classes are encouraged to solve challenging drawing passages by executing smaller, quicker studies. Others may focus on portrait drawing and painting.

Throughout the course, artists will be encouraged to construct solid drawings investigating anatomy, structure, weight and line quality before progressing to use value to build volume. Painters may choose to follow the traditional indirect method presented by the instructor or explore more direct methods – both approaches will receive frequent, positive critiques from an experienced painter. Lectures on traditional methods and materials and how they apply to working from life will be supplemented with informed demonstrations.

The course will conclude with a constructive critique of accumulated classroom work.

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Comic, Graphic Novel & Children's Book Development

Schedule for Winter – Spring – Fall 2024
Schedule for Summer 2024

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Today, the most popular forms of communication in book publishing are comics, graphic novels and children's books, and artists David Witt and Bill Hauser are masters of the craft. Together, they will help develop your ideas into exciting, visual stories that communicate your thoughts with exhilarating interest.

Everything is covered, including: Process (story development, layout, thumbnails, roughs, and finish), Composition (narrative flow, page/panel relationship, viewpoint, camera angles, and cropping for emphasized interest), Character Development (expressive gesture through anatomy, posture, facial expression, and costume), Tone Design (dramatic lighting and spotting darks), Lettering, and advanced Inking Techniques.

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The Oil Study: Proper Techniques for Traditional Painting

Schedule for Winter – Spring – Fall 2024
Schedule for Summer 2024

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Designed to be taken independently or in conjunction with our Renaissance Drawing and Painting Techniques and Beyond course, this class is formatted to teach art students how to paint simply and quickly using traditional methods. While students in Renaissance Drawing and Painting Techniques learn the importance of finish, this class is designed to emphasize the significance of an intelligent and efficient start based on working methods and aesthetic principles established during the 15th through 19th centuries.

Initially, systematic painting methods are stressed to build confidence and speed of execution. Concepts of shape, value, color, edge relationships and brush manipulation are approached with concise clarity to help increase the accuracy of intuitive decision-making and to facilitate assured painting. During each painting session the importance of intent is emphasized to help students focus on essentials and use limits of time to their best advantage. The class includes an informed overview of materials, techniques, and ways to increase artistic seeing and thought processes.

Oil Study Artwork

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Traditional Drawing and Painting Methods

Schedule for Winter – Spring – Fall 2024
Schedule for Summer 2024

Pen and Ink/Watercolor Supplies
Oil Panting Supplies

This class is designed specifically for students wishing to develop their drawing and painting abilities in a relaxed, casual environment, yet its structure still provides ample opportunity for artists to master basic to advanced traditional skills through systematic, formal instruction.

Students begin by improving their drawing abilities and then progress into painting by working through a series of introductory exercises, most often incorporating the mediums of pencil, pen and ink and watercolor. Having gained a basic understanding of shape, line and value, and having increased their color sensitivity and perception, students then proceed to develop a personal aesthetic based upon advanced artistic seeing. What follows is a greater flexibility in choice of projects and mediums, including watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, charcoal, pastel, tempera, and oil. Instruction is sequential from term to term to ensure steady growth.

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Renaissance Drawing and Painting Techniques and Beyond

Schedule for Winter – Spring – Fall 2024
Schedule for Summer 2024

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Students develop drawing and painting skills through a structured program of individual exercises based on time honored methods.

Using historical models of traditional training as a guide, our course begins with an in-depth overview of drawing based on Renaissance Principles. Students learn how to improve their draftsmanship through methods of shape simplification, shape comparison and shape isolation. From there we advance to the study of line. Value and mass are considered next, followed by an exploration of edge relationships. Students then advance into oil painting to learn underpainting and glazing techniques perfected during the 15th thru 19th centuries. They may also choose to experience the direct painting methods popularized by the Naturalist and Impressionist movements of the late 1800’s.

In this class the importance of finish is emphasized. All lessons are taught from as accurate, historical perspective as possible. The development of a personal aesthetic based upon reliable historic references and advanced artistic seeing is the ultimate goal. Instruction is sequential from term to term to ensure steady growth. By exposing students to the full vocabulary of Western Art we find they are better prepared to make creative choices in their personal work.

Renaissance Artwork

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Practical Anatomy,  Figure Drawing and Painting without the Need for a Model

Schedule for Winter – Spring – Fall 2024
Schedule for Summer 2024

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Historically, fine artists were capable of drawing and painting the human figure independently of a live model or photographic reference, allowing them to compose innovative works using nothing other than their imaginations. Such knowledge allowed a freedom of thought and expression often lacking in today’s figurative works. This class is designed specifically to teach students how to draw anatomically correct figures without the use of a live model and teaches students how to paint the figure using historical painting methods.

Our Practical Anatomy, Figure Drawing and Painting course starts students off with a set of easily remembered proportions, builds shapes and boxes around those proportions, introduces drawing techniques and strategies for conveying action, and ends with informative lectures on artistic anatomy. Each lesson is designed to dramatically improve imaginative or life drawing skills. The instructor supplies master drawings, photographic references and casts to help students grasp each concept. Handouts from classic anatomy texts and the instructor’s own notebooks are given to supplement lectures. As anatomy and figure construction becomes more intuitive, students are encouraged to develop works of pure imagination. Whether your goal is to compose master works, improve your life drawings, or get an absolutely solid introduction to the figure, this course will not disappoint. Typically, each session is a great mixture of beginners and experienced students.

Anatomy Artwork

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