Drawing & Painting

The Drawing & Painting Program is full time and requires three years to complete. Students are guided through the curriculum by faculty who are graduates of our program, and work daily from the figure, cast, portrait and still life, while attending lectures in Anatomy, Art History and Materials.

The Drawing & Painting Program is offered in Florence, Italy, and Mölndal, Sweden.

Student and graduate work is directly affected by the philosophy, teaching methodology, and physical structure of the studio in which it is created. A distinguishing characteristic of The Florence Academy of Art is that we require all our students to work from life under natural north light, in the tradition of the masters of the past whom we admire: Titian, Rembrandt, Velázquez and Sargent, to name a few. Our students do not idly copy their subjects but instead learn to translate nature in a way that is both anatomically accurate and artistically beautiful. Long poses may last three hours a day, five days a week for four or five weeks. This gives students time to work out problems and produce a competent drawing or painting. Natural light allows students to select a specific area of the painting to keep in sharp focus while peripheral areas remain out of focus, just as the eye sees in nature: there are no edges in natural light, but soft gradations of light to dark.
The sight-size method is a helpful tool, and we apply it in the early stages of the curriculum when students are learning measurement, proportion, and shadow shape. Students at the advanced levels are taught to apply comparative measurements when necessary.
The rate at which students progress through the Drawing and Painting Program varies by individual, and normally requires a minimum of three years to complete. Classes meet Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. First year drawing and sculpture students are required to attend Anatomy Lectures which are held on Monday evenings from 5:00 – 7:00 pm. Students attend additional figure drawing class one evening a week. All students are encouraged to participate in the Friday evening Art History lectures and the technical demonstrations on materials & techniques held during the academic year.

Students are considered graduates when they have successfully finished all assigned projects. The Florence Academy of Art is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). Students may earn credits towards a U.S. degree.
Applicants may request advanced standing upon entry. Faculty will assess and determine the applicant’s level during the portfolio review. Only applicants who have attended similar atelier style schools, and who have completed the same drawing exercises as those required by The Florence Academy of Art Intensive Drawing curriculum, will be considered for advanced standing. Applicants who are granted advanced standing must spend enough time in the Academy’s drawing and painting programs to absorb the principles, methods and ideology espoused by The Florence Academy of Art. Therefore, the last entry point in the curriculum for all applicants, and the first required exercise, is a cast in charcoal and white chalk on toned paper.
Program faculty may concur to waive specific exercises thereby allowing a student to fulfill graduation requirements without completing all of the curriculum’s exercises. This decision will be based on the performance of the individual student and will be monitored closely by the faculty to ascertain that the student has understood the concepts and is able produce work at the standards required by they program.

Student and graduate work is also affected by the faculty, who are chosen from the best of our student body. Each year, three to five graduates are invited to remain for a fourth year as Graduates in Residence, and as teaching assistants in the Intensive Drawing Program and the Sculpture Drawing Program. Over time, some become Principal Instructors, and eventually Program Directors. The academy is therefore sustained by a group of committed artists whose instructional language is unified by their common background, but each brings his or her individual voice to the critique.

Ramiro Sanchez, the Director of the FAA’s Advanced Painting Program, says the following about building a student’s skill base:

“As the program challenges individuals to push their technical ability beyond their perceived capacity, they develop strength of character and the confidence necessary to be a professional painter. This helps to create a state of mind in which they are certain of their choices. Our graduates will never stand in front of a blank canvas and feel lost. They will always be able to return to the method. They will never say how am I going to do this, but rather concentrate on what they want to say, and follow their inspiration.”

1st year

Intensive Drawing

“What we do is a craft. You have to start with whatever you’re able to do, then add to it with discipline and exercises. This classical approach is built on practice and building skills. There’s no shortcut.” – Daniel Graves, Founder

Beginning Drawing

1st year | 15 credits

An established set of exercises focuses on outline, proportion, and shadow shape, on a step-by-step progression through the program’s curriculum. The first exercises are designed to strengthen the student’s visual relationship with two-dimensional form to help them confront three-dimensional subjects in life. The simplified forms of the Bargue Drawings allow students to learn the procedure very well, and develop skill in reproducing the outline, blocking out shapes, and refining line quality. They also begin to understand the importance of values in turning form. Students begin to learn how to see their subject, and gain precision through practice over many weeks, as well as skill in handling their materials and tools.

The student should begin to transfer these concepts to drawing from the model. Students are required to copy small Bargue drawings in pencil and large in charcoal; the level of difficulty of the Bargue drawings ranges from simple to complex. In order to pass these exercises, the student must correctly draw the subject’s outline, proportion and shadow shape, and use skillfully their materials (pencil, charcoal and paper). This requires that the student sees their shapes correctly, applies the sight size method correctly, and fully controls his technique.

By the conclusion of Beginning Drawing the student will be able to:

  • Apply the correct procedure to drawing
  • Apply the sight-size method of measurement in order to view the subject accurately and create an accurate outline
  • Translate two-dimensional form in order to later translate three-dimensional form in two dimensions
  • Draw correct values
  • Produce a clean technique

Upon successful completion of the program, students will have acquired a very high practical ability, together with a deep insight into the theory and historical traditions of drawing.

Beginning Cast Drawing

1st year | 7.5 credits

Cast drawing combines the skills acquired from the preceding exercises and sensitizes the student’s eye to the light and values found in nature. The cast is a simplified, monochrome, stationary form, usually reproductions of classical statuary that help the student find similar shapes in nature; measurements, however, are no longer exclusively scientific: the sight-size method of measurement provides the student with a format, but accuracy in cast drawing depends on the eye. In a cast drawing, the instructor looks for accuracy in line, mass, and values.

At this time, students are directed in how to set up their cast in order to create a strong focal point that should be prominent in the finished drawing. This is a fundamental concept: to select and draw an area in complete focus, leaving the peripheral area out of focus, as the eye would see in nature. Students also control the light to create and design interesting shadow shapes.

With regard to values of the cast, as students begin to represent the impression of what they see, they learn that the value-key must be lowered in their drawings to achieve an accurate impression of reality. The student learns there is a larger range of value from black to white in nature than in a drawing (the darks come close to being the same, but the whites do not). While drawing, they must compress the dark and light ends of the value scale to duplicate the optical effect of light in nature, and create the suggestion of the form turning on the picture plane, thus achieving a three-dimensional quality. The student uses a black mirror as an aid to lower the value-key, and therefore represent the impression accurately. Although these values must be accurate in their relationships, and pleasing to the eye, the way students see and reproduce values may differ.

Students are required to copy plaster casts; the level of difficulty of the casts is considered simple. In order to pass these exercises, students must correctly draw the subject’s outline, proportion and shadow shape, and use skillfully their materials (charcoal and paper). This requires that students see their shapes correctly, applies the sight size method correctly, and fully controls their technique.

By the conclusion of Beginning Cast Drawing you will be able to:

  • Apply the sight-size method of measurement in order to view and reproduce the subject accurately
  • Compress values
  • Translate three-dimensional form into two dimensions
  • Create a focus
  • Create the impression of depth, distance, and atmosphere among parts of the drawing

Beginning Figure Drawing

1st year | 25.5 credits

The figure is the center of the Academy’s curriculum. Beginning figure drawing applies the accuracy gained from the cast to representing a living model. The student is taught to keep in mind three principal concerns when looking at the live model: proportion, body type, and gesture. In order to achieve those elements, the student may approach the drawing in two ways: linear, whereby the student draws accurately the outline and shadow line, or mass, achieved through the comparison of light shapes vs. shadow shapes. As the students’ drawing progresses from simple outline/shadow line or mass, they culls from their knowledge of anatomy to give the figure a sense of weight and balance.

Student then address values in their drawings and key them to what they see in nature. The black mirror is used to help students find the value-key of the figure in order to skillfully represent the impression of nature. By relating the values of the figure to the values in the background, the student gives a sense of space and atmosphere within the pictorial plane. (Light is form; shadow is atmosphere.) The last step in the drawing is working out the transitions in the edges in order to make the forms turn, and create a sense of atmosphere and three dimensions.

By thinking about how to render light by value, and the quality of the edges of the form, the student begins to think like a painter.

Students work under north facing natural light, drawing from live models. The models return to pose in the same position for the duration of the long pose that may last 4 – 6 weeks, three hours per day. Long-poses are essential to the accomplishment of fully finished drawings.

Students attend mandatory evening life drawing classes in pencil two hours per week, and may choose to attend additional life drawing classes during the week. Pencil drawing reinforces the importance of learning to reproduce accurately the subject’s outline and shadow line. By placing the model against a neutral background, students are limited to one flat even value in the shadow areas; they are not allowed to put background value into the drawing, nor may they include any values in their drawing, so the outcome is an outline and a flat, even shadow. Pencil drawing allows students to understand how far they can take a drawing, from simple outline to dramatic gesture, while being precise and accurate with regard to proportion, body type and gesture on a small scale. It emphasizes the importance of line quality to rendering soft or hard edges thus turning form and creating atmosphere and focus.

By the conclusion of Beginning Figure Drawing the student will be able to:

  • Demonstrate an understanding of human anatomy by a sophisticated outline and well designed shadow shapes, as well as descriptive half tone shapes integrated into the big light shape
  • Demonstrate proportion among various forms
  • Demonstrate skill with dealing with the subtle changes of the living, moving form
  • Create edges that give the impression of form turning in space
  • Create a realistic impression of weight and balance
  • Create a realistic impression of structure and solidity
  • Create a realistic impression of light flowing over the form

Anatomy

1st year | 3 credits

Weekly lectures begin with a discussion of the skeleton and myology, the study of the muscles, then move to drawing exercises with the model. “The Living Form” is a phrase taken from the 19th century anatomist, Dr. Paul Richer, in his classic text, “Artistic Anatomy”. It describes our goal as draftsmen, painters, and sculptors who study anatomy in order to see the shape and structure of the human form as it exists in life, as opposed to the altered and fragmented forms of the cadaver, or the static nature of charts and diagrams. Richer believed that the key to understanding form is to draw from life regularly, and to complement this visual method of study with a solid intellectual understanding of the structures of the human body.

With its strong emphasis on drawing from life in both the painting and sculpture programs, students at The Florence Academy of Art study anatomy daily. It is the goal of the Anatomy course to complement these studies and offer students new tools to help them understand the connections between exterior forms and deeper structures.

Weekly lectures begin with a discussion of the skeleton and myology, the study of the muscles, then move to drawing exercises with the model. Throughout the course a strong emphasis will be placed on morphology, the study of the forms of the body pertinent to artists. The drawing portion of the class is designed to help students think more constructively about their approach to the human figure and to offer techniques that help commit the forms of the human body to memory. Students will be encouraged to study from various sources that include selected texts, life casts, 3 dimensional models, the works of master painters and sculptors, live models, and local resources in Florence. Extra work outside of the class is not required but encouraged. Those who attend regularly and participate in class exercises will be given priority for admission to the Ecorchè Sculpture course.

2nd year

Intermediate Painting

“The instruction is not only technical. Instructors also talk about choices that must be made when working from life. Why one might leave information in or leave it out. It is a thoughtful process. It teaches students to constantly ask questions about why they are making certain choices, what affect that will have on the final impression of the piece, and if that is how they want their work to be interpreted.” – Dana Levin, FAA Alumnus & former Principal Instructor

Advanced Cast Drawing

2nd year | 7.5 credits

The student is challenged to see and organize value relationships with more sophistication and strategy. Advanced Cast Drawing in charcoal reinforces the principles presented in Beginning Cast Drawing and introduces the added challenge of toned paper and white chalk. Students are required to copy two plaster casts. The first cast is a mask or simple head, with the purpose of introducing the student to a more complex approach to value relationships presented by the addition of white chalk and toned ground.  The level of difficulty of the second cast is considered complex.

By starting the drawing on a middle tone and being discouraged from mixing charcoal with white chalk in order to utilize the tone of the paper, the student is challenged to see and organize value relationships with more sophistication and strategy. As the student’s drawing progresses, emphasis is placed on seeing specific half-tone shapes and properly compressing them within their value group, in order to achieve a unified and structured drawing.

In order to pass these exercises, the student must correctly draw the subject’s outline, proportion, and shadow shape, and display a skillful use of the materials. The instructor also looks for a strong impression of light, accuracy in measurement and values, as well as an achieved sense of form turning in space.

By the conclusion of Advanced Cast Drawing, you will be able to:

  • Apply the sight-size method of measurement in order to view and reproduce the subject accurately
  • Demonstrate an ability to compress and organize complex value relationships
  • Create the impression of depth, distance, and atmosphere among parts of the drawing
  • Create a realistic impression of structure and solidity Create a realistic impression of light flowing over form

Advanced Figure Drawing

2nd year | 8.5 credits

By decisively organizing and observing value shapes in relationship with anatomical elements, students develop their ability to think as painters. The figure is the center of the Academy’s curriculum, the core of the program. Students work under north facing natural light, drawing from live models. The models return to pose in the same position for the duration of the long pose that may last 4 – 6 weeks, three hours per day. Long-poses are essential to the accomplishment of fully finished drawings.

Advanced Figure Drawing in charcoal reinforces the principles presented in Beginning Figure Drawing and introduces the added challenge of toned paper and white chalk. This progression provides the student with a more complex approach to developing value relationships. Like in cast drawing, by starting the drawing on a middle tone and being discouraged from mixing charcoal with white chalk in order to utilize the tone of the paper, the student is challenged to see and organize value relationships with more sophistication and strategy. As the student’s drawing progresses, emphasis is placed on seeing specific half-tone shapes and properly compressing them within their value group, in order to achieve a unified and structured drawing.

By decisively organizing and observing specific value shapes in relationship with structural and anatomical elements, the student further develops their ability to think as painter.

Advanced dawning students are encouraged to produce skeletal and muscular ecroché drawings of their long poses, in order to reinforce their structural understanding of the human figure.

Students attend mandatory evening life drawing classes in pencil two hours per week, and may choose to attend additional life drawing classes during the week. Pencil drawing reinforces the importance of learning to reproduce accurately the subject’s outline and shadow line. By placing the model against a neutral background, students are limited to one flat even value in the shadow areas; they are not allowed to put background value into the drawing, nor may they include any middle tone rendering in their drawing, so the outcome is an outline and a flat, even shadow. Pencil drawing allows the student to understand how far he/she can take a drawing, from simple outline to dramatic gesture, while being precise and accurate with regard to proportion, structure and gesture on a small scale.

By the conclusion of Advanced Figure Drawing you will be able to:

  • Apply the sight-size method of measurement in order to view and reproduce the subject accurately
  • Demonstrate an ability to compress and organize complex value relationships
  • Demonstrate an understanding of human anatomy by a sophisticated outline and well designed shadow shapes, as well as descriptive half tone shapes
  • Demonstrate skill in dealing with the subtle changes and movement of the living form and the light
  • Create the impression of form turning in space
  • Create a realistic impression of weight and balance
  • Create a realistic impression of structure and solidity
  • Create a realistic impression of light flowing over form

Beginning Figure Painting

2nd year | 17 credits

A limited palette serves as a manageable base from which to explore expanding degrees of chromatic complexity. At this level, students concentrate on tonal values, and work in an ordered regimen of grisaille, limited palette and full palette. A successful figure painting uses all of the skills learned in drawing: line, value, gesture and proportion. The student begins to paint the figure in grisaille, using black, raw umber and white on toned canvas. Here the student learns to reproduce the values learned in charcoal drawing in paint.

Since the value-key is again an important consideration, simplifying the number of colors helps the student concentrate on a precise mixture for the values.

Grisaille, or monochromatic painting, is a fundamental step to painting in a naturalistic way. A logical transition from drawing to oil painting, the grisaille simplifies objective figure painting by examining form as value. Not necessarily done in only black and white, the grisaille is an important precursor to working in color. Tonal painting builds on the grisailles, introducing color and temperature in a way that simplifies color relationships and paint handling. With as few as four colors, the surprising range of a limited palette serves as a manageable base from which to explore the ever- expanding degrees of chromatic complexity.

Instructors find that at early stages in the oil painting curriculum, most students have difficulty controlling paint (the student can see the value but cannot mix it, or apply it successfully). Students are introduced to painting techniques, the properties of individual pigments, oils and varnishes, and the use of grounds and mediums. They attend technical demonstrations on paint grinding and canvas preparation. They learn to grind their own paint, and begin without the aid of mediums, concentrating on exact mixtures and values.

Extended poses give the student ample time to study the nuances of light and shadow, and experiment with paint application.

By the conclusion of Beginning Figure Painting you will be able to:

  • Successfully apply drawing skills to the painting medium technique
  • Demonstrate a control and organization of the materials (oil and canvas)
  • Achieve a sense of reality using values and temperature shifts when working in grisaille and limited palette
  • Produce accurate color-values, sense of light, atmosphere and space

Beginning Painting

2nd year | 15 credits

Students attend technical demonstrations and learn to grind their own paint, beginning without the aid of mediums, concentrating on exact mixtures and values. At this level, students concentrate on tonal values and work in an ordered regimen of grisaille and limited palette to eventually paint in full palette. The student begins to paint the plaster cast in grisaille, using black, raw umber, and white on toned canvas. Here the student learns to reproduce the values learned in charcoal drawing in paint. Since the value-key is again an important consideration, simplifying the number of colors helps the student concentrate on a precise mixture for the values.

Grisaille, or monochromatic painting, is a fundamental step to painting in a naturalistic way. A logical transition from drawing to oil painting, the grisaille simplifies objective figure painting by examining form as value. Not necessarily done in only black and white, the grisaille is an important precursor to working in color. Tonal painting builds on the grisailles, introducing color and temperature in a way that simplifies color relationships and paint handling. With as few as four colors, the surprising range of a limited palette serves as a manageable base from which to explore the ever-expanding degrees of chromatic complexity.

Instructors find that at early stages in the oil painting curriculum, most students have difficulty controlling paint (he can see the value but cannot mix it, or apply it successfully). Students are introduced to painting techniques, the properties of individual pigments, oils and varnishes, and the use of grounds and mediums. They attend technical demonstrations on paint grinding and canvas preparation. They learn to grind their own paint, and begin without the aid of mediums, concentrating on exact mixtures and values.

By the conclusion of Beginning Painting you will be able to:

  • Successfully apply drawing skills to the painting medium technique
  • Correctly transpose the subject’s outline, proportion and shadow shape
  • Use skillfully his materials (oil and canvas)
  • Achieve a sense of reality using values and temperature when working in limited and full palette
  • Produce accurate color-values, drawing, sense of light, atmosphere and space

Recommended Elective:

Ecorché Sculpture

3nd year

Advanced Painting

“As the program challenges individuals to push their technical ability beyond their perceived capacity, they develop strength of character and the confidence necessary to be a professional painter. This helps to create a state of mind in which they are certain of their choices. Our graduates will never stand in front of a blank canvas and feel lost. They will always be able to return to the method. They will never say how am I going to do this, but rather concentrate on what they want to say, and follow their inspiration.” – Ramiro Sanchez, Director Advanced Painting

Advanced Figure Painting

3rd year | 25.5 credits

Advanced Figure Painting incorporates line, values, gesture, body type and proportion, and also a convincing sense of reality – anatomy, weight, and flesh.
Students are required to paint in oil 2 successful nude figures in full color palette (they will be painting at least 6 figures during the year).

By the conclusion of Advanced Figure Painting you will be able to:

  • Use of all the skills thus far achieved to produce a life-like image in a believable environment (coordination figure-background)
  • Demonstrate good understanding of color values
  • Demonstrate good understanding of drawing with paint and anatomy

Students who complete all the required exercises receive a Certificate of Proficiency in Painting at the End of Year Awards Ceremony, and are considered graduates of our program. After completing the Painting program, students may continue in an optional year of specialization to realize more ambitious projects, like a large scale and or multi-figured work. Three graduates will be invited to remain as Graduates in Residence.

Still Life and Portraiture

3rd year | 22.5 credits

Simple still lifes represent the student’s first opportunity to confront composition, to control the light source, and to create a meaningful expression.
Objects must be chosen in a variety of textures and materials, beginning with three objects and moving to complex compositions. Moving from cast to the still life, the student must overcome difficulties in producing a balanced composition, with regard both to light, dark and color.

A successful portrait encompasses all of the requirements of a figure painting, and in addition must show the character of the sitter and a perfect likeness. At the time students begin their first still life in oil, they also begin the portrait in charcoal. They are required to produce three portraits in charcoal before progressing to the portrait in oil. Third year students are required to produce a portrait with hands as their final graduation piece. Here the greater complexity of the subject allows students to deal with the psychology of the sitter and/or placing of the sitter in a specific setting or costume. The third year, students explore composition (line, rhythm, color, etc), themes and expression of an idea.

By the conclusion of Advanced Painting the student will be able to:

  • Set up a satisfactory composition of the portrait in its space
  • Reproduce the likeness and character of the sitter
  • Demonstrate sound painting technique

Recommended Elective:

Dynamic
Ecorché Sculpture

Electives

Ecorché
Sculpture

Art
History

Technical
Demonstration
on Materials
& Techniques

Landscape
Painting