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


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


“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 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


Temple of the Ape King

This piece originated in my Composition & Staging for Visual Development class at the Atelier. The title…’Temple of the Ape King’ was an assignment, with only the text line for inspiration. Most concepts start with descriptive words. It began with an invented sketch of a large ape seated on a crude stone throne. As is… Continue reading


Composition & Staging for Visual Development

[frame] This class was designed and is taught by my father Robert Watts.  He designed the class to emphasize the brick and mortar concepts of picture making so often lacking or not really taught at all in today’s schools and institutions of art.  Although tailored to students looking to go into visual development this class… Continue reading


2012 2nd Annual Watts Atelier Boot Camp

[frame]   WHAT IS THE WATTS ATELIER BOOTCAMP? The Watts Atelier Boot Camp was designed to be a thorough hands-on workshop with a heavy emphasis on exposing students of all levels to a plethora of training methods and exercises used in our full-time Atelier program. It will give the artist an opportunity to gain valuable… Continue reading