The First Annual Master Skill Building Challenge is now Live!
Our first annual Master Skill Building Challenge, with guest juror James Gurney, is now Live! We know many of you may still have some questions regarding how to participate. Because of this, we’ve compiled a brief FAQ thread in our Skill Building Challenges forum for students wishing to participate in the Challenge. Clink the link… Continue reading
Our First Annual Master Skill Building Challenge, starting January 11th, is right around the corner!
Our first annual Master Skill Building Challenge, with guest juror James Gurney, is rapidly approaching. We’d like to take a moment to go over what students enrolled in our online program can expect, as far as the workload and rules are concerned, when the contest launches in earnest on January 11th. The Master Skill… Continue reading
The New Year at the Watts Atelier: Master Skill Building Challenge, Bootcamp blogs, and more!
Happy New Year! We’re thrilled to bring in the New Year and welcome all of the exciting events on the horizon for 2016 here at the Watts Atelier. Here’s a peek at what the first part of 2016 has in store for our students… Master Skill Building Challenge, with James Gurney Students enrolled… Continue reading
Assignment Grading Inquiry
The education of our students is of the highest importance to us here at the Watts Atelier. Our dedication to your learning is what led us to create our unique lesson structure and assingment grading system, complete with feedback to help you, our students, excell in your studies. We’ve recently recieved a few reports from… Continue reading
First Annual Master Skill Building Challenge, with guest juror James Gurney
We are pleased to announce our first Annual Master Skill Building Challenge, with Guest Juror James Gurney Our primary goal at the Watts Atelier is to help our students become better, more skilled and more proficient artists. It’s with this goal in mind that we have reached out to award winning artists and illustrators, and created… Continue reading
Skill Building Challenge 10 Winners announced! Cycle 9 Crit video released!
We would like to take a moment to congratulate the Winner and Honorable Mention of our Cycle 10 Skill Building Challenge. Our Skill Building Challenge entries are judged on the displayed comprehension of the lessons, and (most importantly) the improvement displayed by the internalization of those concepts and application of them over the course of… Continue reading
Skill Building Challenge Cycle 9 Winners Announced!
We would like to take a moment to congratulate the Winner and Honorable Mention of our Cycle 9 Skill Building Challenge. Our Skill Building Challenge entries are judged on the displayed comprehension of the lessons, and (most importantly) the improvement displayed by the internalization of those concepts and application of them over the course of… Continue reading
New Friday Night Live with Lucas Graciano, August 28th, 7-10pm PST
Join illustrator and Watts Atelier instructor Lucas Graciano on Friday, August 28th from 7-10pm PST for a special from-the-studio edition of our Friday Night Live Workshop. Watch and ask questions live, as Lucas works on his largest painting to date; A 6-foot dragon illustration. This workshop is part of our ongoing, free “Friday Night Live”… Continue reading
Skill Building Challenges; New Changes, New Incentives, New Learning Opportunities
Here at the Watts Atelier, we are constantly striving to improve the learning experience for our students. With this in mind, Jeff and his team of instructors recently took a close look at our Skill Building Challenges, and brainstormed ways to structure the challenges (as well as their rewards) to better help the skill advancement… Continue reading
Supplemental Training: James Gurney’s “Tyrannosaurs: Behind the Art” dvd
We recently had the pleasure of reviewing illustrator and author James Gurney’s dvd, “Tyrannosaurs: Behind the Art.” This wonderful instructional video (available as an mp4 download here, or a dvd disc here) joins James in his studio, as he executes and completes a pair of paleontological illustrations for Scientific American magazine One of the illustrations from… Continue reading
Skill Building Challenge Cycle 8 Winners Announced!
We would like to take a moment to congratulate the Winner and Honorable Mention of our Skill Building Challenge, Cycle 8. Our Skill Building Challenge entries are judged on the displayed comprehension of the lessons, and (most importantly) the improvement displayed by the internalization of those concepts and application of them over the course… Continue reading
The Watts Atelier Workshop and Bootcamp FAQ
At the Watts Atelier, we understand the importance of quality, skill-based art instruction. We also understand that individuals from across the globe wish to increase thier skills, students who are unable to spend a full ten-week term studying with us in person at our Atelier. This understanding is what led us to create our innovative… Continue reading
Grading Issues Resolved
We’re happy to inform everyone that the grading issues many of our users were experiencing should now be resolved. Students are now once again able to view the feedback for their lessons, and will receive email notifications when a lesson has been completed. We’d like to thank you all for your patience as we worked… Continue reading
Skill Building Cycle 7 winners, Cycle 8 announced!
We would like to take a moment to congratulate the Winner and Honorable Mention of our Skill Building Challenge, Cycle 7. Our Skill Building Challenge entries are judged on the displayed comprehension of the lessons, and (most importantly) the improvement displayed by the internalization of those concepts and application of them over the course of the… Continue reading
A Message from Watts Support, regarding lesson grades and feedback
To our students, We’ve recently been working with a third party to iron out and fix a few system errors in our grading program. While the fix seems to have solved the initial problems, it seems the update was incompatible with other parts of our system. We’ve been receiving reports that students are no longer… Continue reading
Realizing your Artistic Journey, with Jeffrey Watts
I’d like to thank everyone for their overwhelming response to my youtube podcast, “How to Train to Become a Successful Working Artist.” I’m thrilled to see so many artists and students interested in learning what it takes to become a working professional. With that in mind, I’d like to expand beyond the realm of… Continue reading
Assignment Grading FAQ
We’d like to take a moment to thank our students for their amazing response to our Guild program and the associated lesson assignments. Our lesson assignments in particular have received a fantastic response from our student community, and as such we’ve decided to compile a list of frequently asked questions regarding assignment submissions and… Continue reading
Skill Building Cycle 6 winners chosen, Cycle 7 announced!
We’d like to give a round of applause to all of the students who participated in our Cycle 6 Skill building Challenge. Returning to the basics may seem like a “backwards” step initially, but there are few things more important than maintaining a strong foundation for your skills to grow upon. We would like to… Continue reading
Beginning this Friday: “In the Studio” podcast series, with Jeff Watts
We are thrilled to announce the start of a new ongoing feature for our online school; our “In the Studio” podcast series, premiering this Friday at 7pm PST on our Youtube station. . This exciting series of video podcasts takes the viewer into the at-home studios of the artists and instructors of the Watts… Continue reading
Just Released: “Designing and Painting Dragons,” with Lucas Graciano
We are proud to announce that our newest Master Class, “Designing and Painting Dragons” with Lucas Graciano, is now available! This course will delve into the research, prep work, and finishing techniques that are required to paint dragons for the illustrative industries. Students will be guided through the process of designing a dragon with personality and weight… Continue reading
Skill Building Challenge update: Cycle 5 winners chosen, Cycle 6 announced
Cycle 6 marked a very special first for our Skill Building Challenges, as all participants were given a brief critique of their work by our team at the Atelier. It was thrilling to see everyone utilize their feedback and make such leaps in their skills in such a short amount of time. Choosing a winner… Continue reading
Site Maintenance Tomorrow – Feb. 10th
Hi everyone, Due to the overwhelming success of the Guilds kickoff we are going to update the site tomorrow to significantly improve the overall speed. We will begin our updates tomorrow morning (February 10th) at 7am PST. If you try to access the site tomorrow, you may find it in maintenance mode or you may only… Continue reading