Winter 2025 Classes

January 13 - April 4
Special Sale: Price for 12-week classes is $500 till 11:59pm December 31

  • Lesson on Seeing Structural Drawing  

    Begin with a traditional Bargue drawing exercise to sharpen your observation skills and learn to draw with accuracy. This lesson focuses on understanding proportion, line quality, the identification of shape and space.

  • Anatomy of Light Made Simple 

    Explore the core principles of light and shadow in this value-focused lesson. Learn to recognize and apply the effects of light on objects, enhancing the realism and depth of your work.

  • Sphere with Background

    Practice applying value to a simple form rendering a sphere with a background. This exercise helps you master the subtleties of light and shadow, understanding the use of value, edges and creating a sense of volume and space.

  • Transfer the structural accuracy of your Bargue drawing and apply refined value techniques, building depth and realism with careful shading and light manipulation.

  • Item description(Structure - Value Rendering) 

    Work from life, drawing a still life while focusing on structure, value, and the completion of a polished, finished piece. This exercise ties together everything you've learned in a real-world setting.

  • Artist's Choice

    Conclude the course with an independent study, where you choose your subject and apply all the techniques you've mastered throughout the class. This is your opportunity to explore personal interests and push your artistic boundaries.

Fundamentals of Academic Drawing
w/Alex Martinez

$537 or $134.25/month with Klarna
New session begins Monday 1/13 and runs till 3/31
7-9:30PM

Elevate your drawing skills in our Fundamentals of Academic Drawing Class! This intensive course is designed for beginner and intermediate artists ready to deepen their technical mastery and artistic expression. Start with a classic Bargue lesson to hone your ability to see and understand structure, followed by a focused exploration of light and shadow in Anatomy of Light Made Simple. Apply your knowledge to a series of hands-on exercises, from rendering values on a Bargue drawing to creating lifelike studies of spheres and still life. 

Conclude your course with an independent study where you choose your own monochrome artistic path.
Materials (graphite, charcoal) are selected for their ability to clearly demonstrate value. This class is perfect for those seeking to refine their technical skill set and push their drawing practice to new heights!

  • Expand your knowledge of basic/advanced oil painting techniques, but also encouragement to experiment and explore techniques and subject matter

  • Develop a strong understanding of color theory and its application in oil painting

  • Foster critical thinking and self-evaluation skills through regular critiques

  • Enhance your ability to create meaningful and expressive artworks

Fundamentals of Oil Painting
w/Michael De Brito

$537 or $134.25/month with Klarna
New session begins Tuesdays 1/14 and runs till 4/1
7-9:30PM

The Techniques in Oil Painting Curriculum is designed to take students from a solid foundation in oil painting techniques to the next level of artistic mastery. Through a series of carefully crafted lessons, this curriculum explores advanced concepts, techniques, and artistic expressions to enhance students' skills and help them develop a unique artistic voice. Students will engage in a variety of exercises, projects, and critiques to deepen their understanding and proficiency in oil painting.

  • A practical approach to design & composition that will allow you to compose dynamic pictures with ease

  • The importance of strong value contrast for making strong art

  • Mixing colors can be difficult, but if you have a system that allows you to deconstruct the colors you observe and want to mix, a whole world of possibilities opens up

  • The subjective nature of color makes it unparalleled in its power to guide a visual narrative

Monthly Adult Painting Studio w/Julian Tejera

$180/month
New session begins Wednesday 2/5
1-3:30PM

This class is intended for beginner and intermediate students who want to learn more about proper painting techniques. Each month will build off the previous lessons, but the main objectives will be to understand how to use design, lights and dark, and color to create beautiful paintings.

Figure Drawing w/Julian Tejera

$537 or $134.25/month with Klarna
New session begins Wednesdays 1/15 - 4/2
7-9:30PM
Ages 16+

The human form has been the primary subject of artists and craftsmen for millennia. This 12-week course will breakdown everything you need to know so you can create accurate and dynamic figure drawings of your own. Special attention will be paid to gesture and proportions as you progress through the course towards a final long pose.

  • The spirit and rhythm of the pose. We begin to understand the way the human body works by quickly responding to what we see, and gradually build onto gesture.

  • Angles, balance, tilts, volume, and form… this is how we begin to draw convincing bodies. Knowing the general proportions of the figure helps us as to accurately draw the model as we see them, but also opens up the possibilities for exaggeration and stylization from a place of knowledge.

  • Thinking about the larger relationships between the parts will give your drawings life without the need for much detail.

  • Composing the figure on the page to create a beautiful or dynamic image. We’ll think in terms of value shapes, multi-figure, and environment. Understand how to interpret the lights and shadows as shapes to strengthen your drawings.

  • Understand how to correctly draw faces from any angle with features placed correctly

  • Learn to simplify your subject by focusing on light and shadow shapes instead of details

  • Practical color mixing for any variety of skin tones and lighting conditions

Portrait Painting w/Julian Tejera

$537 or $134.25/month with Klarna
New session begins Thursday 1/16 - 4/3
7-9:30PM

This class will focus on understanding how to capture both a likeness and the essence of an individual. Likeness is the fundamental task of portraiture: how does one accurately reflect the appearance of the person they are trying to draw or paint? But that is a technical matter. To capture the essence requires you to ask questions beyond likeness. This is where Art with a capital A comes into play.

FAQs

  • In a word: accountability.

    A self-contained schedule of 8 or 10 or 12 weeks is great for order and consistency, but the time in between the terms is often too long. As adults, we have responsibilities that take precedence at home, and distractions that take us out of the proper mindset. Those multi-week breaks often put a hard stop on all the progress that was made during class.

    Several prestigious art schools in our area run ongoing classes with no long breaks. Others run longer trimesters with short breaks. My dream is for FAAM to become a school that can provide students with the technical and conceptual frameworks to make incredible art with or without an art degree.

  • All FAAM classes are ongoing monthly throughout the year, unless otherwise noted. Instruction is tailored to the individual and students may join at any time. Each class runs through a 4-6 month cycle of structure before repeating.

    Classes are set up to allow for flexibility with two options:

    1. You can sign up for a class on a month-to-month basis, enrolling each time after a reminder from me. This makes it easy to keep up with the class, as well as your busy schedules if you know there will be certain weeks or months you can’t make it to class.

    2. If you’re ready to commit for deep learning, you can sign up for monthly recurring payments. Just set it and forget it, as they say. This option guarantees you a spot in class each month, but is still flexible enough if you need to pause and take a break for an extended period of time.

    When you enroll for the first time, your payment guarantees you a spot in the class. After the 2nd week of class you will receive an email with a link for both options above.

  • You should have control of both the pay-as-you-go and recurring options, so you can simply not sign up again or stop payments from your end.

    If you need to discontinue a class after it begins, let me know and you will be prorated the difference of however much time is left.

    If you wish to change to another one, email me directly or speak to me in class and I’ll be able to make that change if there is space.

  • If you need to pause for one month but don’t want to lose your spot, you can save your place in class for $69. Just speak with me directly via email, phone, or in class, and I’ll set that up for you. Note: this option is valid for only one month. After the month has passed, you must sign up for class again or it will be opened to the public.

  • All classes are 16+

  • Yes!!

    Since I am just starting out, I am navigating the waters of scheduling and understanding people’s interests. In July there will be a Tuesday evening class as well as possible daytime options, depending on a number of factors.

  • Workshops are going to act as the booster shot for all existing and interested students. Classes will be geared towards traditional processes, while workshops will introduce students to exciting new ways to think about realism in a contemporary sense.

    First workshop will take place in July and then become a monthly offering.

  • The Academy is as much a workshop as it is a school, meaning students will also be in my personal work space. You will have front row access to works-in-progress, notes and sketches, as well as a voluminous 130+ art book library to get inspiration away from social media. There is artwork by both myself and other artists hanging on the wall as well.

    I’ve been an artist and educator for 15 years, and have developed a reputation for quality at every school where I’ve taught. Beyond the quality of education, though, creating an artistic community around a shared love for traditional AND contemporary art is central to my focus.