One more day to bid on a Friday Night Live original painting!
Own the painting from our first ever Halloween Friday Night Live workshop, and help a great cause at the same time. There’s one more day left to bid on E.M. Gist’s painting of Boris Karloff’s “The Mummy.” All proceeds will be donated to Promises2kids, a non profit organization dedicated to the needs of foster… Continue reading
Welcome the Guilds, on November 10th
Join us in welcoming the next step in our online program: The Guilds Learning on your own can be very overwhelming. The truth is that you are not alone. You are part of a vibrant community as a member of the Watts Online School. We’ve put together a program that leverages the knowledge and… Continue reading
Special Halloween Edition of Friday Night Live, With E.M. Gist
Happy Halloween, From the Watts Atelier! Join Watts Atelier instructor and renowned horror illustrator E.M Gist on October 31st from 7-10pm Pacific Time, for a special Halloween edition of our Friday Night Live workshop. In the spirit of the season, Gist will be painting a monster portrait, live for our viewers. The finished portrait will… Continue reading
Skill Building Challenge: Cycle 3 announced!
Cycle 3 of our Skill building Challenges is just around the corner.. For those of you new to our Skill Building Challenges, each cycle is broken into four individual one-week challenges, with a unified theme throughout all 4 weeks designed to push our students’ skills in a specify discipline from our online program. While hard… Continue reading
Just Released: “Studio Still Life Painting,” With Meadow Gist
We are thrilled to announce the release of a new Master Class to our online program; “Studio Still Life Painting,” with Watts Atelier instructor and fine artist Meadow Gist. This video course follows Meadow as she delves into one of the painting disciplines she is known for, her long-format still life paintings. Students will… Continue reading
“Friday Night Live,” figure drawing with Jeff Watts
Join us this Friday at 7pm PST for another free Friday Night Live session with Jeffrey Watts. Jeff will be working from a live model and demonstrating the abstractions, rhythms and techniques he uses when drawing the female figure. Join in the conversation during the live stream, and ask your questions to… Continue reading
“Friday Night Live” special guest; Gouache painting with Robert Watts!
Join us this Friday at 7pm PST for a special Friday Night Live event, as Robert Watts Demonstrates his Gouache painting skills. In his own words, Robert is going “to dance with the devil, and take a hand drawing of Captain Teague, to some sort of finish in gouache transparent to opaque.” If you’ve ever… Continue reading
New Specialty Class Released: “Composition and Staging,” with Robert Watts
We are happy to announce the release of our latest Specialty Class; “Composition and Staging,” with Robert Watts. This course is meant to help the student break down, simplify, and understand the elements that make up a fantastic composition. Robert draws on his decades of experience as an illustrator and designer to help students… Continue reading
The Skill Building Challenge Cycle 2 results are in!
The results of our Skill Building Challenge, cycle 2 are in…! The winner will be receiving an original portrait drawing (pictured above) by Watts Atelier instructor Erik Gist. Our Skill Building Challenges are designed as a friendly competition that’s geared towards advancing the participants’ skill base. Each individual Skill building Challenge (which we refer to as… Continue reading
“Friday Night Live,” Quicksketch edition, August 29th 7-10pm pst
Join us this upcoming Friday, August 29th, from 7pm-10pm PST for a special Friday Night Live event. Jeff Watts will be demonstrating his quicksketch process live, while viewers watch and ask questions. Working from a model, Jeff will show the viewers the type of drawing instruction that’s included in our Figure Phase III online lessons.… Continue reading
“Demonstrating the Craft,” Figure Painting with Jeff Watts, Part 2
A few weeks back, we gave you a look at the start of Jeff Watt’s in class demo for his “Long pose figure painting” class. This week on “Demonstrating the Craft,” we revisit the demo and take a look at Jeff’s progress on the piece.
“Demonstrating the Craft,” With E.M. Gist
Watts Atelier Instructor E.M. Gist is well known for his horror, fantasy and sci-fi illustrations, but the skills needed to paint the imaginary creatures and characters in his illustrations are all honed by studying reality. Taking a look at Erik Gist’s demos from this term can help the aspiring fantasy illustrator understand why studying from… Continue reading
“Demonstrating the Craft,” Figure painting with Jeff Watts
With our summer break at an end, classes have once again started up at our Atelier in California. This term brings a special demo-viewing opportunity for those enrolled in Jeff Watt’s “Figure painting, 5 week pose.” Traditionally, our painting courses kick off with a single day dedicated to a painting demonstration, where students get to watch… Continue reading
“Demonstrating the Craft,” at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con
This past week marked the annual arrival of the San Diego Comic Con, the largest comic and pop culture convention in the world. As always, the Watts Atelier Team was there, conducting panels and participating in signings on the showroom floor. E.M. Gist, signing alongside Guillermo del Toro and Mike Huddleston The Most exciting… Continue reading
“Demonstrating the Craft” at the Watts Illustration Bootcamp
This past week marked the start of our first “Watts Illustration Boot Camp,” an intense 6-day workshop designed to strengthen our students’ illustrative storytelling abilities and improve their technical skills within their chosen medium. The workshop’s instructors (award-winning illustrators and Watts Atelier instructors E.M. Gist, Lucas Graciano, and Michael C. Hayes) have been spending hours of… Continue reading
“Demonstrating the Craft,” Comic Covers with E.M. Gist
This past week marked the release of a new online specialty course, “Painted Comic Covers,” with Watts Atelier Instructor and illustrator E.M. Gist. On this week’s installment of “Demonstrating the Craft, we take a brief look at the course and at Gist’s process through screenshots of the video lessons themselves. Erik’s process starts where all artists’ visual… Continue reading
“From the Sketchbook,” toned paper
Last week in “from the sketchbook,” we showed you how Jeffrey Watts utilized toned paper and white charcoal to explore his figure invention exercises. This week, we take a look at how a few other Watts Atelier instructors use their toned paper sketchbooks. While Jeff’s figure inventions were executed entirely in white charcoal, these sketches… Continue reading
Skill Building Challenge: Cycle 2 announced!
Announcing “Skill Building Challenge: Cycle 2, Embracing Portraiture” Our first Skill Building Challenge was a great success; The students who participated saw their skill levels jump in those short four weeks due to a dedicated schedule and the driving force that a bit of friendly competition brings. Now that our first challenge, Cycle 1,… Continue reading
“From the Sketchbook,” White Charcoal
Sometimes drawing in a slightly different way than we are used to can help get the artist past mental roadblocks, and free up their mind to explore and enjoy the art of sketching. Here, Jeff Watts has utilized white charcoal on grey paper for a few figure invention sketches. Next time you reach for your… Continue reading
“Demonstrating the Craft,” Anatomy Tutorials with E.M. Gist
As students at our atelier advance in their skills and begin to understand the fundamentals of drawing, their questions during our instructors’ demos begin to turn to one subject in particular; anatomy. Once a student has a firm grasp on the foundations of drawing (edge, value, and shape) they often work to understand the subtleties… Continue reading
The Skill Building Challenge Cycle 1 results are in..!
The results of our first Skill Building Challenge are in…! The winner, who we will announce shortly in this post, will be receiving an original figure drawing (pictured above) by Watts Atelier founder Jeff Watts. Our Skill Building Challenges are designed as a friendly competition that’s geared towards advancing the participants’ skill base. Each… Continue reading
“Demonstrating the Craft,” Head Quicksketch Demos
Last week on “Demonstrating the craft,” we took a look at some figure quicksketch demos by Watts Atelier instructor E.M. Gist. This week, we take a look at a few demos for our other variation of quicksketch; Head Quicksketch. These head quicksketch demos, done by Watts Atelier Founder Jeff Watts and Watts Atelier Instructor Lucas… Continue reading