THE COURTYARD ATELIER

The Courtyard Atelier offers studio courses in the figurative arts of painting, sculpture, and drawing, relief and anatomy. As a fine art studio, its classes are taught in a "bottega" or the atelier method of instruction, that is, working with artists whose teachings are an extension of their own studio practices and aesthetic beliefs. The atelier provides a working environment for artists who wish to maintain and extend their study and practice in the figurative traditions. It is designed as a place where they can further develop and nurture their craft while advancing their vision with teaching artists of like minds.

The Courtyard Atelier is dedicated to serving the needs of the figurative art community. The atelier is equipped with an antique cast collection along with plaster dissection casts, and ecorche models. All day classes are conducted in natural light in a studio with northern exposure. Class size, according to discipline, will be kept at a maximum of eight to twelve students. As part of Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts South, the Atelier is within a short distance from so many of Philadelphia's most noted cultural treasures, namely, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of American Art Museum, the Rodin Museum, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Franklin Institute and more.

FIGURE DRAWING INTENSIVE

This one-week drawing studio is designed for those artists who want to work on long term poses in figure composition. In our morning sessions, or, "the AM pose", there is a one-week-full-figure pose of a single model done as a monochromatic "presentation drawing". Our afternoon "PM poses" will be a series of various yet repeated and done in group composition, bichromatic, in light and shade, and include perspective. The class will work directly from life for six hours a day, for five consecutive days. Discussions and demonstrations will include methods of chiaroscuro, modeling techniques, perspective, and proportions.

LIFE DRAWING AND DRAPERY STUDIES

This twelve-week course is designed to assist the figurative artist in developing both an anatomical sense of form while also gaining a greater sense of proportions, range of movement, and how this generates folds. By working the model in the same pose nude and then draped, students will gain a greater sense of how, The knowledge and technique of depicting drapery plays an increasingly important role in contemporary figurative art. This course is designed to help the artist to develop the skills needed and used in clothing and draping the figure in their drawing painting and sculpture. Class size limited to ten people.

HEAD STRUCURE

The art of making a likeness depends on many factors. This course is designed to assist the artist in finding and learning those factors by realizing them through various means. By doing drawing, painting, and sculpture, the basic structure of the head as well as a close study of the features students will become more adept in grasping the characteristics sought in good portraiture. Working from the live model as well as plaster casts, academic studies, the course will provide a vast portfolio for future reference when in the private studio. As we focus on the underlying structures of the human head, each week the class will focus on the structure of each facial feature. Working directly from life, students will have the opportunity to model three different portraits in three different positions or poses. Illustrated discussions will cover the movements of the head to neck, the features, design of various bases, "eye measurement", and modeling techniques.

THE ART OF ECORCHÉ:

"BUILDING THE BODY"© with A. Visco

This course is designed for artists who want to develop a greater tree dimensional sense and skill of human anatomy. By modeling the body three dimensionally, ecorche' is a way of learning anatomy by developing the system from the bone structure to the superficial muscle mass below the skin. Essentially, "ecorche'" is learning to "build the body" from the inside out from al aspects of its structure. In this first of a two-part studio course, we will focus on the armature construction and design, proportions, skeletal structure and deep muscle.

The studio is equipped with a variety of ecorche' casts. With the aid of the skeleton, anatomical drawings, ecorche` sculptures, and plaster dissection casts, along with the live model, students will work with an articulated armature and model in clay a standing ecorche figure.

♣ Ecorché meets for seven days with two session each day. The 15th session is comprised of three hours distributed among our three afternoon classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On these three days, classes will be from 1PM to 5PM.

THE ART OF CHIAROSCURO

The use of light and shade in art has always been the hallmark of an artist's knowledge of form. It also serves as a remarkable means to visual organization. By drawing from antique casts as well as live models, this one-week intensive examines the "twelve principles" of light and shade and their use in representational art. The use of natural light along with the conceptual, perceptual, techniques demonstrated in this class, students will work on a series of drawing that will demonstrate the nature of light and how light reveals form. There will be daily discussions and demonstrations on the various schools of modeling and techniques of massing in light and shade as well as use and content of light in art.
10 SESSIONS

MAKING MAQUETTES©

One week workshop

This series of weekend courses will demonstrate how to design and construct movable lay figures in clay as an artist's aid in constructing multi-figure compositions. Used for centuries by the Masters, the techniques demonstrated here will include the proportions for the male and female lay figure as well as the canons for eight-head heroic and seven and one-half head figures. Participants will learn to construct maquettes using their own reusable templates and then proceed to pose the maquettes with the assistance of the live model.

“IL PANEGGIO”
THE ART OF DRAWING DRAPERY©

One week workshop /10 sessions

With the use of a draped lay figure, models, and along with lecture and demonstration, students will learn the various basic structures inherent all types of folds and what generates what type of drapery composition. Each lesson will focus on one of the seven types of folds and demonstrate how they occur, when they occur, and how they are used in art. Classes will progress from study of the various types away from the figure, to then working from an actual "paneggio", a draped lay figure, and on to working from both the nude and clothed model.

♣ Each instructed class in a given discipline entitles you to two non-instructed classes of the same course when offered. Placing the figure in a coherent spatial context as well as composition is the major focus of this class. By working with models in both epic and genre poses, how perspective, eye level, and various lighting plays a role in the content of the figure.

RELIEF COMPOSITION

A. Visco

The art of relief sculpture finds its basis in the careful combination of actual and implied form, actual and implied space. In this 12-week studio course, the "Ghiberti" method of projecting figures in a spatial context and composition will be demonstrated and employed. Working from the live model in north light, this class will include the various types of high, medium, and low relief, how and when they are used and composed. Discussions and demonstrations will include methods of relief illusion, modeling techniques, and relief perspective.
This class will be comprised of three in studio projects and one outside project. The first two will involve the basic structure of relief as a sculptural idea. There will be one 3-week pose and one five-week pose. The remaining seven weeks will be dedicated to studying the four tones or "voices" of relief.

MATERIALS LIST

For Relief Composition

Panel(s): 1 or 2 Masonite or Luan board or ¼ inch plywood. Prepare surface with oil based paint to the color of the clay to be used. Size: approx. 20" x 30"
Tools: Flat modeling tools, rakes, wooden and metal, putty knife approx. 2" wide.
Clay: Plasteline, Chevant, and Prima oil base clay preferred hardness.