My 7 Years at the Watts Atelier

This post is a long one, but one of my favorites. Maybe because it’s all about me

For the past seven years, I’ve been keeping a record of all the classes I took, and I’ve kept every single drawing. I’m going to do something different and post my schedule from the past 7 years. This post is NOT to show people what path to take, it’s just mine. Everyone’s journey is unique. That is what I love about the atelier program – you create your journey and your future. You are not part of a curriculum. This post IS meant to be used as an example to help you develop your own path.

This post shows my entire school schedule, but it doesn’t show the working and studying I did at home. I put in at least another 20 hours every week working on my own projects at home.

I don’t plan on leaving the atelier anytime soon. Even though I’ve gotten much more than I could ask for from a school, it would be stupid of me to leave this environment unless I absolutely have to. Being in an environment of like-minded, hard working artists pushes me to keep growing. I think it’s essential.

So here’s my schedule for the past 7 years… I’ve included sample work and an overview for every year.

2003

Winter ’03 Intro to Tonal Drawing Spring ’03 Intro to Tonal Drawing Summer ’03 Quicksketch Intuitive Anatomy Storyboarding Fall ’03 Quicksketch Features & Facial Expressions

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Overview

2003 was a slow start. High school obligations allowed me to take classes only on weekends. But that’s OK. I got the ball rolling in 2004. I’m glad I took the Intro to Tonal Drawing twice. Smart move. But the storyboarding and features classes were way too early. At this point I was still trying to become an animator. I thought that taking those classes would get me there faster. Wrong! In the storyboard class, I ended up struggling with basic drawing problems rather than focusing on the art of storyboarding.

2004

Winter ’04 Quicksketch Figure Drawing Art of the Caricature Spring ’04 Quicksketch Figure Drawing Head Drawing Environmental Design Uninstructed Workshop Summer ’04 Head, Figure, Quicksketch Figure Drawing Perspective Fall ’04 Figure Drawing Advanced Head Drawing Gouache Painting Dynamic Animal Sketching Uninstructed Workshop

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Overview

This was a great academic year for me. Every semester had 2-3 core drawing classes along with 1 fun specialty class. In the fall I took gouache as a transition from drawing to painting. It’s great to start painting with gouache before oil because gouache trains you to tile. Place a  stroke and leave it. Gouache dries so fast that you don’t have time to blend it. When transitioning to oil, I already had the habit of tiling my strokes rather than mushing the paint around. I made a lot of good decisions this year.

2005

Winter ’05 Head Drawing Drawing the Hands & Feet from Life Drawing the Clothed Figure Digital Painting/Gouache Painting Illustration Techniques Uninstructed Workshop Spring ’05 Portrait Painting Long Figure Drawing (5 week poses) Anatomy Intensives: Arms & Legs Color Theory Digital Illustration Uninstructed Workshop Summer ’05 Head, Figure, Quicksketch Figure Invention Anatomical Sculpture Gesture Plein Air Painting Uninstructed Workshop Uninstructed Painting Workshop Fall ’05 Quicksketch Figure Drawing Portrait in Gouache Anatomical Sculpture: Part 2 Dynamic Animal Sketching

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Overview

Not as many of the core classes this year, but most of the time was still spent drawing from life. Now it was just more specialized life drawing, like hands, feet, drapery, and animals. Continued doing the gouache painting and slowly moved into more oil painting and plein air. I worked on a lot of illustration projects at home this year. So, at this point I’m starting to create my own ideas, develop them, and take them to a finish.

2006

Winter ’06 Illustration: Creative Staging Portrait in Oil Composition Spring ’06 Head, Figure, Quicksketch Long Figure Drawing Long Draped Figure Drawing Long Portrait Painting Summer ’06 Still Life Gesture Painting Painting from the Masters Painting Masterful Hands in Oil Fall ’06 Quicksketch Head, Figure, Quicksketch Figure Painting: Reilly Method Gesture Plein Air

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Overview

This year I stopped illustrating and started focusing mainly on painting. I took a variety of painting classes and dedicated the Spring semester to long-pose drawing and painting. At this point I started accepting some commissions and staging photo shoots to work on longer paintings at home.

2007

Winter ’07 Quicksketch Long Pose Head Drawing Bridgeman’s Anatomy Plein Air Landscape Painting Teach: 20 Minute Figure Lay-ins Spring ’07 Head Drawing Plein Air Landscape Painting Teach: Quicksketch Teach: Portrait Drawing from Photos Summer ’07 Dynamic Drapery/Draped Figure Drawing Long Costumed Figure Painting Gesture Portrait Painting Teach: Head Drawing Fundamentals Teach: 20 Minute Lay-ins Fall ’07 Quicksketch Head Drawing Figure Drawing Plein Air Landscape Painting Teach: Head Drawing Teach: Figure Drawing Teach: Portrait Painting Essentials from Photos

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Overview

2007 was the year I started teaching. Teaching put a lot of pressure on me to improve my skills and to fully understand concepts. A teacher must know the information well enough to articulate it effortlessly. You can see me taking this very seriously in the Fall when I took all 3 core classes and signed up for 5 artist workshops to study some new teaching styles. These workshops are scattered throughout 2007 and 2008. This year I also partnered with an art agent, who began selling my work to galleries.

2008

Winter ’08 Quicksketch Long Draped Figure Drawing Inking as a Fine Art Teach: Intro to Tonal Drawing Teach: Head Drawing Teach: Painterly Drawing Spring ’08 Figure Drawing Teach: Intro to Tonal Drawing Teach: Head Drawing Fundamentals Teach: 20 Minute Head Lay-ins Summer ’08 Gesture Portrait Painting Color Theory Jon Foster 3-Day Workshop Teach: Portrait Drawing from Photos Teach: Portrait Painting from Photos Fall ’08 Steve Huston 3-Day Drawing Workshop Steve Huston 3-Day Painting Workshop Teach: Head, Figure, Quicksketch Teach: Oil Painting Fundamentals Teach: Painterly Drawing in Charcoal

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Overview

This year I focused a lot on studio painting to produce some work for my agent. Also, I made some friends with whom I started a lot of new business ventures. Most of these have failed by now, but the lessons learned are priceless. These businesses include a taco shop finder, nursing scrub label, event planning, nightclub guest-list system, and graphic design. I learned a lot about web/graphic design and branding this year while building these businesses. I will apply all these lessons to my fine art career in 2009.

2009

Winter ’09 Uninstructed Workshop Teach: Intro to Tonal Drawing Teach: Head, Figure, Quicksketch Teach: Portrait Drawing from Photos Spring ’09 Teach: Head Drawing Essentials Teach: 20 Minute Figure Lay-ins Teach: Long Pose Head Drawing Summer ’09 Portrait Painting Teach: Portrait Drawing from Photos Teach: Figure Drawing Essentials Fall ’09 Teach: Painterly Drawing Teach: Head, Figure, Quicksketch Teach: Oil Painting Fundamentals

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Overview

As the economy plunged, businesses failed and painting sales stalled. I started looking ahead and planning ways of improving my fine art as a business. I started writing this blog to make a bigger impact in the art world and get my name out there. I’m going plein air painting weekly and I continue doing the studio paintings to build that mighty portfolio!

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If you’re still early in your art training I highly recommend keeping a log of your studies. Reviewing the past 7 years while writing this post helped me see the big picture. I realize how the little decisions can impact my future dramatically. Now I put a greater value to every semester and every choice I make about my career.