Learn the art of figure drawing using our step by step method. Beginner and advanced students will benefit from this drawing workshop. Students will be working directly from the nude using charcoal or carbon pencil. Senior ARA instructors will teach you the basics of gesture, proportion, and morphology. Finally finishing with big form and small form modelling. The end effect is a dramatic three dimensional figure.

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This five-day workshop focuses on the fundamentals behind successful portrait drawing using dry media and various papers. Emphasis is placed on the drawing process and what to look for at various stages in order to draw a portrait with accuracy and efficiency. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience.
Students may bring their own photos that have been pre-approved by the instructor. Alternatively, suitable photos will be available for the students on the first day of the workshop.

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Academy Director and Senior Instructor Fernando Freitas takes students through the stages of the Tenebrist approach to oil painting in this seven day workshop. Similar to the much-loved "In the Studios of the Old Masters" workshop, this program teaches the chiaroscuro approach (which means light/dark, or light and shade) used by such artists as Rembrandt and Caravaggio. Working from a selected study, students learn the specific step-by-step process to achieve an exact copy, as well as gain a clear understanding of the principles of oil painting, and the best techniques and materials to use. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience.

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This new week long workshop focuses on creating a painted portrait using a photo reference (a selection of pre-approved photos will be provided).
Participants learn the key principles of what information to keep and what to omit from photographs. Also covered are painting fundamentals such as form, value, shape and finishing processes. In addition, the fundamentals of photography for portrait painting will be fully explored and a handout provided to outline photo requirements. Students of all levels are welcome.

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Academy Director and Senior Instructor Fernando Freitas takes students through the stages of academic oil painting in this seven-day workshop. Working from a copy of an Old Master painting, participants will learn the specific step-by-step process to achieve an exact replica. This exercise helps them gain a clear understanding of the principles of oil painting, the best techniques, and which materials to use when. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience.

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Working with a live model, this seven-day workshop takes students step-by-step through a classic, wet-on-dry layering method to achieve a realistic portrait. Topics covered include composition, colour harmony, photography, studies, proportion, sketches, palettes and more. Much of what can be learned at this workshop can be applied to all areas of painting. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience.

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Now you can learn the training techniques of the masters. Artist and instructor Fernando Freitas shares his proven step-by-step instruction technique that has helped artists of all levels of experience master their drawing skills.
The Charles Bargue Drawing Course was developed and widely used in the mid 19th century as a foundation exercise for fine art training. Throughout the years it has been used by many great masters as an essential process in understanding the principles of shape, proportion, value and form.

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This new five-day workshop is designed for artists who want to learn the alla prima technique working from live models. Alla prima — which means "at once" — is a painting style that is done in a quickly-executed wet-into-wet fashion for faster results. Artists of all skill levels will have an opportunity to develop a good vocabulary for sketching from life, as well as delve into paint and brush handling for achieving a representational, realistic portrait in a more immediate way. Painters already using alla prima methods in other genres such as landscape will also benefit from this workshop.

read more...

Learn the art of figure drawing using our step by step method. Beginner and advanced students will benefit from this drawing workshop. Students will be working directly from the nude using charcoal or carbon pencil. Senior ARA instructors will teach you the basics of gesture, proportion, and morphology. Finally finishing with big form and small form modelling. The end effect is a dramatic three dimensional figure.

read more...

Academy Director and Senior Instructor Fernando Freitas takes students through the stages of the Ingres approach to oil painting in this seven day workshop. Similar to the much-loved "In the Studios of the Old Masters" workshop, this program teaches the French Academic approach used by such artists as Jacques Louis David and his student Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Working from a selected study, students learn the specific stepby- step process to achieve an exact copy, as well as gain a clear understanding of the principles of oil painting, and the best techniques and materials to use. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience.

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Leo Mancini-Hresko has a wealth of knowledge about working with traditional painting materials. He taught both beginning and advanced students for many years at the Florence Academy of Art. In this very
informative workshop Leo will teach students how to make and work with traditional painting materials. Students will create their own hand-ground paint, gesso panels and linen canvases and go home with all
the information they need to put this information into practice in their own studios.

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Workshop description to be provided by instructor.

This class will explore the painting method of Velazquez from his early period in Spain and Italy, to his later period painting for the Spanish court. A lecture series and day to day demonstrations will provide an in
depth understanding of Velazquez's technique, painting surfaces, palette choices, and thought process in composing his paintings. With this knowledge students will then produce a master copy from a selection of
high resolution images of Velazquez's work. The workshop will also offer demos on stretching and preparing surfaces in traditional methods andother basic technical skill utilized by Velazquez and other old masters to provide a necessary understanding of the fundamentals for traditional oil painting.

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Instructor Marc Colangelo takes students through the stages of the Tenebrist approach to oil painting in this seven day workshop. Similar to the much-loved "In the Studios of the Old Masters" workshop, this program teaches the chiaroscuro approach (which means light/dark, or light and shade) used by such artists as Rembrandt and Caravaggio. Working from a selected study, students learn the specific step-by-step process to achieve an exact copy, as well as gain a clear understanding of the principles of oil painting, and the best techniques and materials to use. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience.

read more...

This new five-day workshop focuses on the fundamentals behind successful portrait drawing using dry media and different tones on paper. Emphasis is placed on the drawing "process" and what to look for at various stages in order to draw a portrait with accuracy and efficiency. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience.

read more...

This five-day workshop uses observation of live models and includes elements of clothing, drapery, costume or props. It will focus on the "direct" painting technique that also borrows from the layered or "indirect" method used by most Old Masters, as well as alla prima style that features wet-into-wet and expressive brushwork. This modern synthesis allows for an efficiency of paint application without compromising the principles of quality, craftsmanship, and draughtsmanship that underscore any academically sound methodology.

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Students will learn how to approach an oil painting from start to finish. We start with drawing the still life in the sight-size method, transfer it to canvas, and paint in layers until the ob jects have form and detail. This course teaches traditional atelier-style methods, from using a campitura, to dead color, first painting, and second painting, all working from life. Demonstrations will be given on the layout & methodical uses of the full-color palette, as well as lectures and handouts on mediums, steps of the process, hue/value/chroma, color mixing, palette care, and varnishing. The goal of the course is to understand the observational painting process and come away with a realistic still-life painting.

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During his life, Rembrandt completed at least seventy self portraits. These drawings, etchings and oil paintings created a diary of his life and served as tools of experimentation and promotion.

Using history as inspiration, this ten day workshop will open with a presentation of various self portraits and a discussion of their motivations and themes. This will aid the student in choosing a composition for their autobiography. More than other genres, the self portrait demands that the artist reflect not only on the self, but how to present this self to others.

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This workshop allows students to choose between black chalk or red chalk. While all mediums explore similar visual phenomena, such as shadow or contour effect, each has its own individual characteristics. Black chalk offers an exceptional range of potentials of expression through a full light to dark register. Red chalk is more restricted in tonal gradation, lending itself to a more atmospheric presentation while demonstrating the sheer beauty of red on a warm tinted paper. As linear expression is of paramount importance to all manners of drawing, this workshop, using the most delicate of mediums, is advantageous to any artist in training.

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This intensive, seven-day still life workshop explores the use of light, colour, and texture in a style similar to the Dutch and Flemish masters. As students learn to paint a beautiful still life using classic methods, they are introduced to valuable Old Master concepts such as massing of tonal values, chiaroscuro, "selective focus", and layering to achieve a luminous picture.

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Academy Director and Senior Instructor Fernando Freitas takes students through the stages of the Tenebrist approach to oil painting in this seven day workshop. Similar to the much-loved "In the Studios of the Old Masters" workshop, this program teaches the chiaroscuro approach (which means light/dark, or light and shade) used by such artists as Rembrandt and Caravaggio. Working from a selected study, students learn the specific step-by-step process to achieve an exact copy, as well as gain a clear understanding of the principles of oil painting, and the best techniques and materials to use. This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience.

read more...

This seven-day workshop focuses on a head-and-shoulders study from a live model rendered to a high degree of finish. There will be a single, long-term pose for the duration of the workshop to allow participants to explore all aspects of portraiture including structure, planes of the face and head, rhythm of warm and cool tones, expression of form, likeness, etc. It will focus on the "direct" painting technique that also borrows from the layered or "indirect" method used by most Old Masters, as well as alla prima style that features wet-into-wet and expressive brushwork. This modern synthesis allows for an efficiency of paint application without compromising the principles of quality, craftsmanship, and draughtsmanship that underscore any academically sound methodology.

read more...

This new five-day workshop is designed for artists who want to learn the alla prima technique working from live models. Alla prima — which means "at once" — is a painting style that is done in a quickly-executed wet-into-wet fashion for faster results. Artists of all skill levels will have an opportunity to develop a good vocabulary for sketching from life, as well as delve into paint and brush handling for achieving a representational, realistic portrait in a more immediate way. Painters already using alla prima methods in other genres such as landscape will also benefit from this workshop.

read more...

Learn the art of figure painting using our step by step method. Beginner and advanced students will benefit from this workshop. Students will be working directly from the nude using oil paint. Senior ARA instructor Fernando Freitas will teach you the basics of gesture, proportion, and morphology. Finally finishing with big form and small form modelling. The end effect is a dramatic three dimensional figure.

read more...

In this five-day workshop, participants will be guided to set up their own still life arrangements, where they will learn about lighting, as well as arrangement of shapes, colours and objects and how they tie into composition; focal points, etc. It will focus on the "direct" painting technique that also borrows from the layered or "indirect" method used by most Old Masters, as well as alla prima style that features wet-into-wet and expressive brushwork. This modern synthesis allows for an efficiency of paint application without compromising the principles of quality, craftsmanship, and draughtsmanship that underscore any academically sound methodology.

read more...