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


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


Skill Building Challenge News; Cycle 4 winners, Cycle 5 announced!

The results of our Skill Building Challenge, Cycle 4 are in…!  This cycle saw our greatest turnout yet.  Our judges had a very difficult time choosing the winner of this cycle, but ultimately one student’s efforts claimed the winner’s prize.  Without further ado, we would like to congratulate the winner of our fourth Skill building Challenge..… Continue reading


New Classes for a New Year: Landscape Phase 3, with Jeffrey Watts

2015 has arrived, and we’re excited to begin the new year with the release of our online program’s Landscape Phase 3 lessons. This course walks the student through breaking down Landscape paintings from some of Jeffrey Watts’ favorite painters. While deconstructing the paintings, Jeff places emphasis on incorporating the chosen artist’s brushmanship, color harmonies, compositional choices,… Continue reading


Livestream Guilds Q&A, this Saturday, December 6th at 6:30pm PST

This Saturday night at 6:30pm pacific time join Jeff Watts, Greg Goodman and Tom Babbey, creators of the recently unveiled Guilds Program for Watts Atelier Online, for a special Live stream Q&A. Ask questions and get answers from the people who created this ground breaking new study program for Online Art Training. The Watts Guilds… Continue reading