The Watts Atelier Online Experience

One of the most common questions we receive from students who are considering studying with us is “How exactly does your online program work?”  There are a plethora of online programs available, and it’s understandable for the student to want to know what sets our program apart from others.  To help give you a better idea of what’s offered in our online program, we’ll be giving you an overview of the “Student Experience” here at Watts Atelier Online.

The Watts Atelier Online Programs aren’t piecemeal classes that need to be purchased individually.  Instead of a pay-by-lesson structure, we offer the student a complete education in the visual arts.  Enrolling in our subscription-based programs gives the student access to any and all video lessons and workbooks in that given program, as well as all new upcoming lessons released every other month.

All of this content is structured in an easy-to-follow, linear fashion for the student.  Our video lessons are organized into “Phases,” with each Phase building upon the previous Phase’s lessons and addressing a different subject relating to the visual arts.

 

Within each of our phases are our actual video lessons.  Each phase contains roughly 15 hours of lessons, and as mention previously these lessons build off of each other, cross-referencing and adding information on top of previously-learned concepts from earlier lessons, with the goal of providing you with a complete education, devoid of informational gaps.

The lessons in our drawing and painting programs are conducted by Watts Atelier founder Jeffrey Watts.  These lessons are not time-lapsed or dubbed over with post-filming narrations; They are filmed in real-time, with all commentary given by Jeff and the instructors while they are actually drawing or painting the image for the lesson.  You get to see Jeff and his craftsmanship create an image first hand, unedited, as if you were there.  The student sees the “happy accidents” take place, and you get to witness how Jeff and our instructors approach difficult areas and solve visual problems as they encounter them, in real time.  Going forward, we will be incorporating lessons conducted by other Watts Atelier instructors, all of whom have been personally trained by Jeff; This instructor diversity will make for a richer program, while still maintaining the singular, coherent philosophy and unified language that we believe is so important when gaining a skill base.  Enjoy this brief overview video by Jeff (introducing the lessons covered in Figure Painting Phase 1), which ends with a few minutes taken directly from our videos themselves, highlighting the real-time filming featured in all of our lessons.

 In addition to the wealth of information given in each of the individual video lessons, nearly all of our lessons are paired with an accompanying PDF workbook.  These workbooks are filled with supplemental material that includes the supplies and reference material needed for each lesson, helpful reminders and exercise suggestions pertaining to the video,  and advice on how to cross-reference the current lesson with other phases and lessons in our program, in order to get the most out of your complete educational experience with us.  Here are a few  excerpts from our “Painting Phase II: Tiling Approach” workbook.

Our instructional videos don’t end with our drawing and painting lessons.  Our Atelier is known for it’s amazing instructors, most of whom are award winning artists in their own right, and all of whom have been trained (With the exception of Robert Watts, Jeff’s father) at our Atelier in Encinitas, CA by Jeff himself.  Every artist has their passion and “specialty,” something that calls to them, resonates with who they are, or simply “clicks” with the way they teach and learn; Our instructors are no exception.  To give our students a chance to learn these focused subjects directly from the instructors who are passionate about them, we offer you our “Specialty Classes.”  Each of our specialty classes covers a particular subject relevant to the visual arts, and is taught by one of the amazing instructors from our Atelier.  These classes are organized in a similar way to our phases, with each program containing several hours worth of video lessons filmed in real-time.  We like to think of the Specialty Classes as our version of “electives,” as they cover more specialized topics and help “round out” the student’s education, providing them with skills that go beyond the concepts of drawing or painting.

All of these programs and features are included in our Drawing, Painting and Specialty Program.  To gain access to all of our current content (roughly 300 hours of video lessons, plus workbooks and access to our student Study Groups forum) visit our “Membership Options” page (located here) and enroll in our Drawing, Painting and Specialty Program today.  Enrollment is quick and easy, and for the convince of a student’s study flow, billing is handled through an automatic, monthly subscription-based plan.

We at the Watts Atelier have a commitment to our students to provide one of the most complete and comprehensive online art educations available, with a focus on quality;  both of the lessons we provide to you and the instruction we give.  With this in mind, we actively work to expand our program even further, adding new content every other month.  Those enrolled in our Drawing, Painting, and Specialty program can look forward to new specialty classes on the horizon, including “Developing and Executing a Cover Illustration” by Erik Gist, “Creating Illustrations for Magic: The Gathering” with Lucas Graciano, and “Executing Masterful Still Lifes” with Meadow Gist.  We look forward to you joining us for your studies, and if you have any questions regarding our programs or our school as a whole, please reach out to us through our contact form.

All the best, and Happy Painting,

-The Watts Atelier Team