Watts Atelier Master Classes

1)This course will teach you some of the background and techniques that go into painting an illustration for card art. You will be walked through each phase of the illustration process that I use, starting with receiving the assignment all the way through the final painting. We will also talk about common ways to go about getting your first job and some of the best ways to increase your chances of getting work in the increasingly competitive job market.

2)When painting a cover for a comic book, less emphasis is put on narrative and more on creating an iconic image that jumps off the rack. In this series of lessons we will be going over the process often used in the generation and refinement of concepts. We will then continue, and spend a majority of the time, on to the materials and technique used to create the final, oil painted image.

3)The goal of this class is to familiarize you with each of the seven key folds, as well as their function and usage in the process of drawing and painting. Through diligent practice of these principals you will eventually gain a mastery of drapery that will open you up to explore your creative and artistic potential.

4)These videos are a collection of useful tips and approaches for both design and the necessary tasks of perspective and shadowing for all ‘Tech’ genres. The solutions range from the rather involved, but carefully explained… to the very simple. Unlike previous courses, the workbook will actually expand upon what you see in the video with clear, defined steps and diagrams plus much new material and additional concepts along the way.

5)This course will cover the fundamental aspects of Character design for work in Conceptual Design. Here you will learn various methods for maximizing a high creative potential. There is introduction and demonstration of mediums commonly used in the industry. The course covers fundamental aspects of design and how to add personality to your characters. You will also be walked from sketch to completion through a common way industry professionals achieve their results.

6)One of the greatest gifts of sight is our ability to distinguish colors. The human eye can distinguish around 10,000,000 colors. This may be why the Impressionist movement had and continues to have a large following. The transition from black and white training can feel daunting. There are so many choices, so many variations of paint colors and formulas. Do we use viridian green or pthalo green? Opaque or transparent? What about limited or extensive palettes? How do we learn to observe color?

7)Join Robert Watts, Jeff’s father, as he walks you through a variety of illustrative scenarios and visual problem-solving solutions, using one of his favorite mediums, Gouache. Robert will lend insight from his 40 plus years as a commercial illustrator and fine artist, and use his eclectic and masterful skill sets to demonstrate how to put all the fundamental lessons learned thus far to use, in order to create a dynamic, original image. As this class will cover the importance of value and and the immediate, visual read of an image, it is equally helpful to the illustrator, conceptual artist and fine artist. This class is easily adapted to digital media as well, making it a perfect course for the visual development student. You’ll be sure to enjoy not just the information in this course, but also Robert’s down to earth demeanor and whimsical sense of humor, as they help his lessons become more relatable and add a bit of lightheartedness to a very intense, information-packed subject.

8)The goal of this class is to simplify the elements and procedures that produce excellent compositions…from motifs, overlap, linking and the monster power of shadows to the concept of contrasts and that mysterious thing called mood.

9)This Course will cover the fundamentals of drawing features and facial expressions. Construction of each feature will be the focus of the first portion of the course. Facial anatomy will then be taught as a transition into drawing facial expressions. Students will then move on to cover the seven main facial expressions

10)In this course, Robert Watts will show you how to execute a studio landscape painting with a focus on structures.. Watch as Robert explains the differences between plein air painting and studio landscapes, and learn the importance of color studies and how to properly utilize reference in the studio. Follow along as Robert demonstrates these disciplines and ultimately works up to a finished studio landscape piece.

11)This course will teach you some of the background and techniques that go into painting dragons for illustration. You will be walked through a process of designing a dragon with personality and weight in order to achieve a highly inspirational and believable design. You will learn to mannequin a dragon so you are able to visualize and draw a dragon from many angles. Lastly the course will take you through a process of staging a dragon for an illustration.